A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to travel to San Diego for Veeam’s annual VeeamON Conference. Always a highlight, and this one did not disappoint!
First off, I love San Diego, it’s one of my favorite cities in the States. I’ve been there a few times in the past, usually for Cisco Live or VMware Explore. Just the perfect climate, by the water front and all the ships!
I got to San Diego on Monday, late afternoon. Checked into the hotel, dropped my luggage , and off I went to the first event, Veeam100 Underground. This was not open to the public, but a community event where Veeam Legends and Vanguards would present on various topics. Really nice, and it was awesome to see fellow Veeam100 again. This was followed by a reception, so off to a good start.
Tuesday was the keynote, which I was very excited about. I knew about some upcoming releases and changes to the architecture.
Some of the highlight announced during the keynote and technical keynote on Wednesday were:
The Data Resilience Maturity Model (DRMM)
Veeam teamed up with McKinsey and MIT’s George Westerman to roll out something called the Data Resilience Maturity Model. Basically, it’s a way for organizations to figure out how good they really are at bouncing back from disruptions. The truth? Only half of companies hit their recovery time goals when things go sideways. The DRMM offers a roadmap to improve that—because resilience isn’t just about backups anymore, it’s about full-on survival.
Veeam Data Cloud Expands
Veeam is expanding its Data Cloud services to now include Microsoft Entra ID and Salesforce. Whether you’re backing up hybrid workloads or going full SaaS, this gives you better control and visibility across platforms—and fewer excuses not to have a solid recovery plan.
CrowdStrike + Veeam = Better Together
Security and recovery just got cozier. Veeam announced a new partnership with CrowdStrike, blending Veeam’s backup and recovery strengths with CrowdStrike’s threat detection. Together, they’re aiming for a more unified approach to stopping attacks and getting your systems back online fast.
And my favorite:
Veeam Backup & Replication v13 (VBR v13)
The upcoming VBR v13 will feature high availability, universal continuous data protection (CDP), and a new Veeam Virtual Appliance. These enhancements aim to minimize downtime and improve recovery objectives, particularly beneficial for service providers and enterprise environments.
Being in the small to medium-sized space, I think the Virtual Appliance can have a big impact. Now, in version 13.0, there is no upgrade way yet to move your existing VBR to the Appliance; this will come in a later version. But for new deployments it is ready to go. Pair it with an Object First Appliance and you have hardened systems, nearly maintenance free with immutable storage!
On Wednesday evening was the Veeam party. To be honest, I wasn’t too wild about the venue and the food was not great. But we still all had a good time and rocked out on the dance floor.
As a personal highlight, I won the Veeam Data Resilience Award for dealing with last year’s CrowdStrike outage utlizing Veeam. It was great to see Dave Russel again and have a picture taken with the award.
In conclusion, the conference was great! I enjoyed the sessions and came home with some ideas and excitement for what is next. But most of all is to see friends, old and new, and have some good laughs together! And there was no shortage of this!
Below are some pictures from the conference.
’til next time!
Missed it live? You can still watch all sessions, including product demos and keynotes, via VeeamON On-Demand