Did someone say MOAR CLOUD? Rubrik 3.2 just dropped.
- 3 minsThis post was previously hosted on a different site and then migrated here.
Otherwise known as the…
I’m going to start off by saying this: Wow, this is a pretty big payload for a .x iteration, who says new features only come out in major releases eh?
So what do we get in v3.2?
Two major new features:
- Cloud Cluster - 4 node (minimum) Rubrik CDM instances running natively in AWS or Azure
- Native NAS support - no need for anymore proxy VMs
And a boatload of enhancements to existing functionality:
- Enhancements to the Edge virtual appliance for MSPs
- Replication engine enhancements (distinct retention for local and replication clusters, and multi-replication targets)
- On-demand snapshot SLA assignment
- Encryption key management (KMIP)
- Additional SQL Server enhancements (Renaming files on export, and creation of missing directories)
- API enhancements
- Pure FlashBlade support, and additional API integration to the FlashArray series
So lets take a look at Rubrik Cloud Cluster. Before we go into the nuts and bolts, lets take a step back and look at how most companies start a cloud strategy, and the steps they take before they get to the glorious multi-cloud utopia that we all aspire to…
This is not a new picture, but that doesn’t reduce it’s validity. Most of the companies I go to see are somewhere around Phase 1, some are at Phase 2 (even if it’s only test/dev and O365), and a tiny percentage are at Phase 3. Rubrik are aligning the product roadmap and feature releases to correspond with this graph. The smart amongst you will notice that today’s announcements for Cloud Cluster place us somewhere within Phase 2, and you could deduce from this that there’s more good stuff coming in future releases. You would be right.
Oh, and if anyone’s interested in seeing our roadmap going forwards, here’s a little teaser for you… How’d you like the look of that?
Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Cloud Cluster.
Rubrik Cloud Cluster
So what is Rubrik Cloud Cluster? It’s exactly the same as your Rubrik appliance on-premises, just off-prem in AWS or Azure. The only difference being you need to have a minimum of 4 nodes to enable Erasure Coding. The cluster can then scale out on a node-by-node basis from this 4 node minimum, and will give you a single unified fabric between multiple clouds and your on-premises datacentre. Also baked in is all the SLA based goodness, and advanced reporting that comes as standard with any Rubrik appliance.
From a sizing perspective, this is what it looks like: 
Currently supported for backup in v1 are Windows Filesets, Linux Filesets, and SQL Databases, but this opens up plenty of possibilities around not just data protection, but also data mobility:
Want to replicate data between public cloud providers? Yep, we can do that.
Want to backup your cloud applications back to a central on-prem location? No dramas.
Want to restore files or data from Azure to AWS, or to your on-premises data center? Cool, man. (hint - nice migration path between cloud providers here)
Want to archive off cloud data to blob storage for compliance purposes? Go for your life.
Now, knowing what’s on our roadmap for upcoming releases, I’m very excited indeed to see how this product continues to grow over the next few months. As always, if you would like more information don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter or register for the webinar around Cloud Cluster on the 11th of May.
Ed Morgan
GTM Technical Lead @ Rubrik, I like the Cloud, automation, and picking heavy things up then putting them down again.