In a recent meeting with the press, Object First (the new initiative of the founders of Veeam) has announced a significant expansion of its solutions catalog: the compact Ootbi Mini and threat detection functionality Ootbi Honeypotto reinforce its commitment to the Zero Trust Data Resilience (Zero Trust Data Resilience).
The presentation included the participation of Ksenia SuvorovaSales Team Leader SEMEA & SDR, and Miguel TenaSystems Engineer for Iberia.
During his speech, Suvorov explained the principles of Zero Trust: “We must always assume the possibility that, even if the perimeter is closed, someone could be inside.” Under this premise, the main objective is to prevent an attacker from “moving within the IT infrastructure.” To achieve this, he added, it is necessary to “put many, many small locks in all sectors of the company.” The key word to apply these principles to the world of backup is immutability.
Ootbi Mini: immutability in tower format
The main hardware novelty is the Ootbi Minia compact, immutable tower storage device designed for environments without a traditional data center, such as remote offices (ROBO), branch offices or small businesses.
Miguel Tena highlights that this format is ideal for clients who “do not have a rack or a CPD.” Ootbi Mini is available with capabilities of 8, 16 and 24 terabytes (TB)and offers the same security, simplicity, and ransomware-proof data protection as the rest of the Ootbi family.
For her part, Suvorova also highlighted the flexibility of the available consumption models: purchase (CapEx) or subscription based on usage (OpEx). He emphasized that this model is “a real pay-as-you-go, that is, we start from 8 terabytes.”
Absolute immutability and cybersecurity
Tena stressed that Object First guarantees “real immutability, absolute immutability.” This means that “neither an administrator with management permissions for the appliance nor, of course, an external attacker, can delete or modify the stored data.” This protection is activated from the moment the backups arrive on the device: “when the backups land on the beach, they are immutable from that moment on.”
To strengthen security, version 1.7 introduces Ootbi Honeypota functionality that acts as “a decoy: a fake server deployed in an isolated area of the appliance.” This emulates a server Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR)one of the most frequently attacked components. If it detects suspicious activity, Honeypot “sends immediate alerts through the customer’s preferred channel.” This feature is available at no additional cost to Ootbi users with version 1.7.
Additionally, Object First introduced the beta program of Ootbi Fleet Managera cloud application that allows “centralized management of different clusters, locations or clients” from a single dashboard.
Transparency in security testing
Tena explained that the company provides its appliance, source code and credentials to ethical hacking companies to perform penetration tests. The result of this exhaustive process confirms that “even if a malicious third party obtains credentials or access, they will not be able to modify or delete the data stored in the system.”
While Suvorova valued Object First’s transparency in this area: “We do not know of another hardware provider that makes public the results of its tests, explaining the vulnerabilities detected and, above all, how they were corrected. I don’t think there are many that do.”
Finally, he concluded that the ease of installation and management of Ootbi “frees the hands of the service provider to focus on much more valuable and important consulting tasks for the company”, thus reaffirming the 100% channel-oriented model.
