At this week’s VMware Explore event in Las Vegas, VMware announced key enhancements to its Ransomware Recovery solution. One primary feature is live behavioral analysis, which provides an additional layer of security by enabling security teams to identify and respond to threats in real time based on user behaviors. Bulk handling also stands out as a critical feature for large organizations; with this product, VMware can handle up to 500 VMs concurrently. VMware is especially well known for seamlessly integrating with existing infrastructures—a reputation it has established across countless enterprise environments. All of this should provide customers with better protection against ransomware and afford users a streamlined, intelligent way to recover faster if they are attacked.
The anti-ransomware solution is planned as an extension to VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery—matching the common bundling approach among its competitors—and will be available on-demand or through a 1-year or 3-year subscription.
VMware Ransomware Recovery benefits
With this offering, VMware aims to deliver an improved SaaS ransomware recovery solution that is easy to navigate. VMware’s solution prevents the reinfection of production workloads, plus it offers guided recovery workflows to help IT staff quickly identify recovery-point candidates. Finding these recovery points also benefits from the system’s behavioral analysis, which constantly observes data, applications and systems. By analyzing these behaviors, the solution creates a baseline so the system can identify deviations which could be a signal of a cyberattack.
Two major factors influencing buyers are reputation and trust, which VMware has definitely built with customers and the industry. In this solution, there is heavy emphasis on performance and efficiency to help users recover quickly from ransomware attacks with minimal data loss. Companies that have heavily invested in specific IT ecosystems are also rightly concerned with compatibility and how any new application will integrate with their existing infrastructures; this is an area where VMware typically excels. As organizations evolve and grow, they need solutions that adapt to changing IT environments so the companies can protect their investments. VMware’s flexible pricing should also be attractive to companies with varying needs. The quality of technical support, especially for critical solutions like this one, could also be a deciding factor.
Given the established players in this industry—Veeam, Commvault, Rubrik, Cohesity, Veritas, Dell Technologies, IBM, HYCU, Microsoft, Unitrends, Druva, and OpenText—it won’t be easy for VMware to break into the anti-ransomware market. However, its deep presence in enterprise IT could provide an advantage. Many of these competitors have strong reputations and comprehensive offerings that combine backup, recovery and security. VMware now has these capabilities too, but will need to demonstrate its differentiation and how well it performs in terms of integrations, flexibility and ease of use.
While VMware’s new offerings in the ransomware recovery space seem promising, it remains to be seen how the solution will perform and be perceived compared to its competitors. As the industry continues to evolve and as ransomware threats grow in sophistication, it will be intriguing to monitor how vendors, including VMware, adapt and innovate.
I’ll be examining the vendors in this space in future pieces, so stay tuned for more details and analysis on where the VMware Ransomware Recovery solution stands amongst its peers.
