As part of a comprehensive transition to Russian IT systems, VTB is migrating to the RuBackup backup system (BRS) from one of the largest domestic vendors, Astra Group. This project is a continuation of the plan for the phased import substitution of the bank's IT infrastructure: a significant part of its server architecture already runs on Astra Linux OS.
«When choosing a solution, VTB's goal was to identify a Russian backup system that would best meet our functional tasks, including the information security requirements of one of the country's largest banks. We conducted a large-scale study of the BRS available on the market, analyzing a number of solutions, and also performed comprehensive testing of RuBackup — all of this work continued throughout the year. Until recently, VTB used two foreign BRS -- Veeam Backup System and NetBackup. The first has already been decommissioned by the bank. In the future, we intend to gradually decommission NetBackup as well, as RuBackup is deployed,» says Sergey Bezbogov, Deputy Head of the Technology Block — Senior Vice President of VTB.
The RuBackup solution provides data backup and recovery for all major elements of the bank's IT infrastructure: virtual machines, physical servers, business applications, and database management systems (DBMS), etc. The key advantages include support for the PostgreSQL Patroni cluster configuration, integration with mail servers, and the possibility of flexible integration with OpenStack, taking into account the architectural features of the bank's network landscape and information security requirements.
At the first stage, servers running Astra Linux OS were transferred to the Russian RuBackup backup system, and in the second stage, virtual machines based on VMware, which previously used the Veeam Backup System, were transferred. After that, mail servers were transferred. The main DBMS for transfer to the Russian BRS is PostgreSQL based on Patroni, in addition, there are plans to transfer other target and experimental solutions: ArenadataDB, MongoDB, Tarantool, ScyllaDB and FondationDB.
During the testing and implementation of new releases of the RuBackup software product, the solution developer team promptly made changes to the BRS, adapting the solution to VTB's tasks. In particular, the RuBackup clients for PostgreSQL and VMware were significantly improved. The implemented functionality of the RuBackup client for VMware will be used to restore archived data from decommissioned information systems based on VMware.
As a result of the joint work of VTB and Astra Group specialists, the RuBackup product has qualitatively changed: its functionality has been significantly expanded. The synergy resulted in more than 5,000 backup clients transferred to RuBackup with a daily volume of backed up data of up to 1.5 Petabytes.
«The threat of data loss is now very relevant: many foreign vendors have restricted Russian users' support and access to updates, while the range of malware is growing, and without timely fixes, serious risks arise. They may be associated with the discovery of new vulnerabilities and attack vectors that can harm all elements of the IT infrastructure. In such conditions, the role of backup and disaster recovery systems is of particular importance. Even in the event of a successful cyberattack or accident, a properly configured BRS allows you to quickly restore the IT system and restore information. The best solution in this situation is the use of Russian technologies. We are confident that we will be able to meet VTB's expectations, as we have already seen for ourselves that RuBackup fully meets modern information security requirements,» comments Ilya Sivtsev, General Director of Astra Group.