We are often asked how Rubrik Security Cloud differs from AWS Backup. It's a valid question because, at first glance, the two solutions seem similar. Both have cloud-first, API-driven architectures. Both are built specifically to ensure reliable backup and recovery for data stored across AWS. Both support a wide range of the most popular AWS workloads including EC2, EBS, S3, RDS and EKS.
However, there are several key differences that many Rubrik customers value:
Ease of use
Built-in cyber resilience
Over a series of articles, we will explore each of these differences in detail and why customers may choose one solution over the other. This article explores one of most important design elements; Simplicity.
Convenient But Complex
AWS Backup is a service that allows users to centralize and automate the backup of their AWS resources. It integrates with various AWS services, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, and Amazon EFS, and is a convenient way to protect data across multiple services. However, this convenience comes at the cost of complexity. Let’s take a look at a few of the biggest challenges as it pertains to the management and operations of AWS Backup.
Support outside of the AWS Cloud
For many organizations, AWS is just a part of their overall IT strategy, sitting alongside other clouds (such as Azure and GCP, numerous SaaS delivered services, and of course, as a storage target for on-premises enterprise workloads). In this context, AWS Backup, while robust within its ecosystem, emerges as somewhat of a point solution, focusing primarily on AWS environments.
Its lack of support for non-AWS workloads, including other cloud platforms, SaaS-based data, and on-premises systems, introduces additional layers of complexity and inefficiency. Organizations are forced to manage multiple, disparate backup solutions to ensure comprehensive coverage across their IT estate. This fragmentation not only complicates the backup management process but also increases the risk of data loss due to potential gaps in the backup coverage.
Moreover, it hinders the ability to implement a unified disaster recovery strategy, as each environment may require separate procedures and tools for data restoration. Hence, AWS Backup's focus on AWS services alone can significantly impede organizations striving for a simplified, coherent, and all-encompassing data protection strategy that aligns with their diverse IT ecosystem.
Managing Backups Across Multiple Accounts
Most organizations implement a multi-account strategy in AWS rather than operating within a single account. This approach enhances operational excellence, security, reliability, and cost optimization. It enables grouping workloads by business purpose and ownership, applying distinct security controls per environment, restricting access to sensitive data, fostering innovation and agility, and limiting the impact of adverse events. Additionally, it supports multiple IT operating models and assists in managing costs while distributing AWS Service Quotas and API request rate limits more efficiently.
However, this strategic multi-account setup significantly complicates the use of AWS Backup. The service's inability to manage backups across multiple accounts from a centralized interface forces users to log into each account separately. While AWS Organizations offers some cross-account monitoring, it lacks visibility into on-premises and other public cloud workloads, such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud (GCP), creating a significant gap in comprehensive disaster recovery and data protection strategies.
The complexities are further exacerbated by EC2's local-only policy assignment and the need for Amazon EventBridge configuration for cross-account alerting, both of which incur additional costs. These factors underscore the intricacies of utilizing AWS Backup in a diverse AWS environment
Lack of Cyber Recovery Support
The landscape of data recovery has dramatically evolved from the days of simple "point and click" restoration of specific restore points. Modern threats, including malware and ransomware, have heightened the necessity for advanced cyber recovery features such as anomaly detection, sensitive data discovery, and threat hunting to identify indicators of compromise within backups. AWS Backup backup or overlooked vulnerability at a critical moment can jeopardize the entire organization, potentially halting business operations entirely. Such scenarios underscore the importance of choosing the right tools and services.
Rubrik: Simplicity and Intuition Through a Unified Interface
Rubrik, on the other hand, takes a different approach to data protection. Simplicity is at the core of Rubrik's design philosophy. It offers a unified platform that encompasses backup, recovery, and security functions, eliminating the need to juggle multiple tools and interfaces. On top of this, Rubrik delivers more than just unified backup and recovery, but provides key actionable data insights around Data Threat Analytics and Data Security Posture Management to lower an organization’s data risk profile—delivered from a single interface.
This single intuitive user interface, combined with automated streamlined workflows really makes Rubrik stand out from the pack. Users can easily navigate through the platform, perform backups, and recover data with minimal configuration required. The same policy-based protection engine is consistent throughout the Rubrik platform, whether protecting data in the cloud, delivered through SaaS, or on-premises within datacenters. This simplicity reduces the risk of errors and misconfigurations, ensuring that data protection remains effective and reliable.
Rubrik also supports the ability to onboard multiple AWS accounts, allowing organizations to provide automated data protection to all of their AWS accounts through a single SLA Domain policy. Furthermore, through the use of tag rules, data protection assignments can be handled by the cloud architects directly from deployment pipelines. Simply assign a certain key value tag to your workload, and Rubrik will ensure it’s automatically protected.
When it comes to recovery, Rubrik understands that simply restoring last night's backup does not stand up against the modern threat landscape. Before you even recover, Rubrik has the ability to detect anomalies within your backup data, determining the blast radius right down to affected files and folders within workloads.
Once we understand what data has been compromised, Rubrik can also tell us more information about that data. Was it sensitive in nature? Who had access to it? What were they trying to do? These are all key questions that come up post-attack that organizations must have the answer to.
Finally, Rubrik automatically hunts through our backup data for indicators of compromise, identifying matches of modern malware and ransomware strains from a curated threat list, allowing threats to be quarantined so they aren’t simply recovered back to an environment resulting in a reinfection.
Finally, when it’s time to restore, Rubrik provides options. We can restore directly back to the original workload in the original account, to a new workload within the original, or a different account —or simply export out the individual files, folders, or objects, that we need to surgically recover data.
The benefits of Rubrik's simplicity extend far beyond just ease of use. It enables faster time-to-value, as organizations can quickly adopt and implement the solution without extensive training or specialized expertise. Additionally, the simplified approach leads to lower operational overhead and costs, as fewer resources are required to manage and maintain the data protection infrastructure.
The Importance of Simplicity in Data Protection
Data protection is not a task to be taken lightly. The consequences of complexity in data protection can be severe, ranging from increased risk of data loss or breaches to higher costs and resource requirements. Moreover, complex data protection solutions can hinder an organization's ability to meet compliance and regulatory requirements.
Simplicity, on the other hand, is a key factor in effective data protection. It enables faster recovery times, as administrators can quickly navigate and initiate recovery processes without getting bogged down by complex procedures. Simplicity also reduces the risk of human error, as there are fewer opportunities for mistakes or oversights.
Furthermore, a simple data protection solution allows for easier scalability and adaptability. As an organization's data protection needs evolve, a simple platform can be readily extended and modified to accommodate new requirements without introducing additional complexity.
In the End, Simplicity > Convenience
When evaluating data protection solutions for your AWS environment, it is crucial to consider the tradeoff between convenience and simplicity. While AWS Backup offers the convenience of being a native AWS service, its complexity can lead to challenges in effective data protection. Rubrik, with its focus on simplicity and intuition, provides a compelling solution that prioritizes ease of use, reliability, and efficiency.
In the realm of data protection, simplicity should not be overlooked. By opting for a solution like Rubrik, organizations can ensure that their data remains secure, easily recoverable, and well-protected against various threats. Embrace simplicity in your data protection strategy, and you'll be well on your way to safeguarding your valuable data assets in the cloud. In future articles we will explore how convenience stacks up to the other core benefits of leveraging Rubrik to protect your AWS data such as security and TCO.
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