Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Kubernetes Data Protection Sector Brief
- Decision Criteria Analysis
- Analyst’s Outlook
- Methodology
- About Joep Piscaer
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Executive Summary
Kubernetes data protection encompasses data backup and recovery solutions that support protecting Kubernetes-based applications in the cloud and on-premises by creating (incremental) copies of data to store in a separate storage target for backup, disaster recovery, resilience, and ransomware protection purposes.
Kubernetes is the standard for cloud-native applications, including those with stateful data. It is also gaining a foothold as the platform for traditional enterprise applications running both in the cloud and on-premises.
As applications and their (stateful) data are inseparable, organizations need data protection solutions to prevent the loss of data from applications running on Kubernetes. This includes traditional backup/recovery, leveraging incremental snapshot technologies and policy-based management, disaster recovery workflows, protection from ransomware and other cyberthreats, other data integrity features, and data copy and migration management to aid in copying data across a multicloud landscape.
Data protection solutions for Kubernetes-based workloads are applicable to any organization that runs applications with valuable stateful data on Kubernetes-based platforms. These solutions are usually deployed and managed by central IT teams responsible for an application’s recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO). Other solutions take a more distributed approach, targeting developers and application operators.
As Kubernetes matures as a platform for running applications, so do data protection solutions. In years past, many solutions focused on supporting just Kubernetes. Today, Kubernetes is just one of the many source platforms supported by these solutions. Customers are no longer looking for an innovative data protection solution for Kubernetes alone. They expect solutions to provide protection regardless of where and how the applications run or the cause of the data loss.
That means solutions are increasingly supporting bare metal, virtualization, and Kubernetes environments on-premises and in the cloud, specific SaaS services, databases, and more. They also have a mature feature set that offers some combination of backup and recovery, disaster recovery, data copy management, protection from ransomware and other cyberthreats, and enterprise features for compliance and auditing.
As the market and individual solutions mature, it’s becoming increasingly common for modern backup solutions to blur the lines between data protection, cybersecurity, business continuity, and data copy and migration management.
Business Imperative
Data protection is like insurance against data loss risks, ensuring business continuity. It protects against external factors (ransomware, cloud, or data center failure) and internal factors (accidental deletion, data corruption, or rogue employees).
Sector Adoption Score
To help executives and decision-makers assess the potential impact and value of deploying a Kubernetes data protection solution, this GigaOm Key Criteria report provides a structured assessment of the sector across five factors: benefit, maturity, urgency, impact, and effort. By scoring each factor based on how strongly it compels or deters adoption of a Kubernetes data protection solution, we provide an overall Sector Adoption Score (Figure 1) of 4.8 out of 5, with 5 indicating the strongest possible recommendation to adopt. This indicates that a Kubernetes data protection solution is a credible candidate for deployment and worthy of thoughtful consideration.
Key Criteria for Evaluating Kubernetes Data Protection Solutions
Sector Adoption Score
Figure 1. Sector Adoption Score for Kubernetes data protection
This is the fifth year that GigaOm has reported on the Kubernetes data protection space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This report builds on our previous analysis and considers how the market has evolved over the last year.
This GigaOm Key Criteria report highlights the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and nonfunctional requirements (business criteria) for selecting an effective Kubernetes data protection solution. The companion GigaOm Radar report identifies vendors and products that excel in those decision criteria. Together, these reports provide an overview of the market, identify leading Kubernetes data protection offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.
GIGAOM KEY CRITERIA AND RADAR REPORTS
The GigaOm Key Criteria report provides a detailed decision framework for IT and executive leadership assessing enterprise technologies. Each report defines relevant functional and nonfunctional aspects of solutions in a sector. The Key Criteria report informs the GigaOm Radar report, which provides a forward-looking assessment of vendor solutions in the sector.