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In the digital economy, few things are more valuable than data. Massive amounts are created every day, and your share is likely integral to customer service, daily operations, financial well-being, and future performance. It makes sense that you would want to protect it.

Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for data to be compromised or damaged from cyberattacks, accidental deletions, or hardware or software malfunction. While you may not be able to prevent these threats and their consequences, you can implement systems for data restoration and recovery.

The solution to the data damage threat used to be data backups, preserving usable, up-to-date copies stored in the recommended 3 separate places. Theoretically, these copies were poised at any moment to replace lost or damaged data.

And in addition to data loss recovery, backups gave company leaders peace of mind, supported compliance with data retention and protection regulations, and helped avoid costly fines associated with data breaches. But traditional data backup and recovery solutions have several problems.

The problem with traditional data backup and recovery solutions

Gaps in Data Protection. Traditional solutions only allow periodic backups, which can leave a gap in data protection. File updates made between backups are subject to loss.

Time-Intensive. Traditional backup solutions can also be time-intensive, especially with today’s huge volumes of data and the suggested 3 copies that need to be identical. Long backup times impact productivity.

Lots of Costly Storage. Storing 3 copies of all your data can be extremely costly, which compounds as data volumes grow and adds to operational costs.

Recovery Complexity. Data copies make for a complex data recovery process. Traditional backup schedules make it difficult to recover data stored at specific times. Limited backup controls also make restoring datasets or individual files more difficult. These schemes suffer from a lack of automation, and often rely on manual processes for both backup and recovery, introducing the added risk of human error.

Data Movement Complexity. Backups across multiple locations create a lot of movement. Whenever data moves, complexity and/or risk increases.

Shift the balance of power in the fight against ransomware.

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Data backup and restoration reinvented

Here at Panzura, we’ve invented a better way.

Less Storage, Less Cost
Using our groundbreaking technology, we eliminated data replication and traditional ongoing data backups and drastically reduced storage cost. Our CloudFS architectural design overcomes the challenges met with traditional backup solutions.

It deduplicates, compresses, and encrypts data before storing it in a single authoritative store and in immutable form. All changes to data are additive, and nothing can be overwritten.

Lightweight Reassembly, Greater Accuracy 
If files or directories are corrupted, removed, or encrypted, the self-service mass file restoration feature helps you recover files and boost data resilience. Rather than restoring files, Panzura Data Services (PDS) software reassembles the most current version using snapshots, metadata, and the object store. Data doesn’t need to be copied — only the lightweight, compressed metadata is available everywhere in the system.

No Data Loss
The Panzura CloudFS repository allows rebuilding any version of a file at any location, improving business continuity, disaster recovery, and ransomware resilience. Immutable data is stored in write-once-read-many form and in read-only snapshots. Since data cannot be overwritten, all changes are saved along with a pointer to pertinent locations needed for reassembly.

200x Faster Data Restoration
When files are damaged, you don’t have to worry about them being lost forever. Because data is never deleted, you can simply find and restore any version. If data is encrypted or stolen via ransomware, the attacker can mask only the pointer map, not the actual data. With Panzura, you need only to recover the pointer map, allowing data recovery 200x faster than traditional solutions.

Ransomware Detection and Resilience 
File auditing using Panzura Data Services enables you to track any changes to your data and help detect ransomware and other attacks. You can specify which interactions you want to track, even those of a single user. Search for a file, view a log of its history, and restore it to its original or new location. With CloudFS snapshots, you can restore files in minutes.

Technology has made data a vital resource across all industries—though it is not without its flaws and risks. Panzura helps you automate data retention and protection and avoid costly fines associated with regulations and data breaches. And with Panzura, you can ensure that no matter what happens, your data can always be restored to its original state—and faster than most people ever thought possible.

Download the Panzura CloudFS 8 technical whitepaper to learn more.

Originally published May 8, 2023. Updated Jan 8, 2024.