Recovering VMs in Seconds to Protect Key Systems and Disarm Ransomware Risks

Overview

Challenge

• Ensure continuous service delivery by mitigating ransomware risks and meeting a strict one-hour recovery time objective (RTO) for key systems.

Solution

• Build an air-gapped vault with VSP 5200 arrays, using Ops Center Protector and CyberVR to create immutable snapshots and automate recovery processes.

Outcome

• Recover 370TB of mission-critical data in just one hour, reducing downtime risks and facilitating compliance with internal SLAs.

Challenge

This large utility company provides critical infrastructure to thousands of residents and businesses across its service area. The company relies on its information systems to enable consistent service delivery – and the organization cannot afford unplanned downtime for its key digital services.

Ransomware attacks against utilities are on the rise, as cyber criminals and state-backed actors look to exploit vulnerabilities in critical national infrastructure. This large utility company had mounting concerns over the potential reputational damage and regulatory risks of service outages and looked for a way to strengthen its cyber resilience.

For service delivery, the utility relies on 250 virtual machines (VMs) and physical servers, totaling approximately 370TB of data. As a first step on its cyber resilience journey, the company aimed to restore these key systems within a recovery time objective (RTO) of less than one hour. To achieve its goal, the company looked for a partner with proven expertise in delivering scalable and reliable data protection infrastructure.

Solution

Working together at Hitachi Co-Creation Labs , Hitachi and its partner VM2020 developed a comprehensive cyber resilience solution to meet the utility’s stringent recovery and regulatory compliance objectives.

The solution is an isolated recovery environment (IRE); an air-gapped vault of immutable storage built on scalable, high-performance VSP 5200 arrays. At regular intervals, Ops Center Protector stores immutable snapshots of the utility’s production data in the vault. Next, CyberVR – an automation platform developed by VM2020 – creates a digital twin of the immutable data for disaster recovery purposes.

In the event of a ransomware attack, the company can use CyberVR to spin up the last pre-encrypted copy of its data in the vault, clear the malware infection, and then apply any necessary hardening measures. After creating a fresh snapshot and digital twin, the organization can recover the VMs to its production environment. If a relapse occurs, the organization can use the snapshot to iterate on the hardening process rather than starting again from scratch.

Outcome

By partnering with Hitachi Vantara and VM2020, the utility is set to transform its disaster recovery capabilities – helping it to deliver uninterrupted services to residents and businesses.

Once deployed, the Hitachi and VM2020 solution will enable the organization to recover 370TB of mission-critical data within a strict one-hour RTO, —reducing the risk of downtime. In fact, the solution is already one of the world’s fastest disaster recovery technologies, capable of restoring thousands of VMs in as little as 10 seconds each.

As well as significantly enhancing the utility’s security posture, the solution will streamline compliance through automated testing and reporting. The organization will be able to run recovery tests at the touch of a button and visualize the results via custom-built reporting dashboards. The solution also integrates seamlessly with the company’s existing systems, streamlining the implementation process and paving the way for the utility to protect more of its VMs in the future.