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Afi Platform Update - Aug 2024

This update brings many new features and significant improvements to the Afi platform, extending support for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Kubernetes backup.

Update summary

Microsoft 365 backup

  • Introduced Power BI backup support
  • Supported Loop components backup and recovery for Team Channels
  • Significantly improved SharePoint data recovery performance
  • Improved backup performance for very large files (100 GB+)

Google Workspace backup

  • Significantly improved Google Chats backup performance for initial and incremental backups
  • Improved backup performance for very large files (100 GB+)
  • Improved orphaned Shared drives detection
  • Improved backup and recovery stability

Kubernetes backup

  • Improved backup and recovery stability

Platform

  • Added global search across all or a selected set of backups in a tenant (data source)
  • Added GFS (grandfather-father-son) retention support
  • Added the option to apply OneDrive, SharePoint, and Google Drive exclusion rules to historical backup snapshots
  • Added the ability to add several SIEM system integrations (for example, Splunk and Slack) ingestion within a single organization
  • Added support for Datadog as a SIEM integration channel
  • Added the ability to restrict access to the Afi portal by country in IP allowlist settings
  • Supported the ability to configure SAML authentication with a generic SAML identity provider (for example, OneLogin, Ping Identity, or Duo)
  • Improved the Licensing → Invoices tab to show invoice due date and highlight past due invoices
  • Added the ability to view and edit organization name and contact person details
  • Updated and improved product documentation

Security and Audit

  • Improved audit event details rendering


Detailed update description

Microsoft 365

Power BI backup

Afi now provides backup for Power BI reports, including both paginated and non-paginated ones, and dashboards. Report data is available for export in Microsoft-native formats:

  • PBIX (Power BI eXchange) and PBIR (Power BI enhanced report) for non-paginated reports;
  • RDL (Report Definition Language) for paginated reports.

Please note that with the next major service update, Power Apps and Power Automate backups will automatically be enabled for Microsoft 365 tenants that already have Power BI backups configured.

Platform

Afi now supports global search across all or a selected set of backups in a tenant (data source), allowing Afi administrators and operators to easily navigate across large backup datasets and unlocking a wide range of e-discovery scenarios, including, but not limited to:

  • locating and recovering a lost file with unknown ownership;
  • identifying all resources where a copy of a file is stored;
  • analyzing employee communication with advanced mail and chat data search capabilities, including time range, attachment, and sender/recipient search filters.

Info

This feature is available for tenants added after May 6, 2023.

GFS retention

Afi now supports GFS (grandfather-father-son) retention rules, allowing you to configure custom backup version retention scheme by specifying how many daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly backup versions you want to retain. Switching to GFS-based retention allows you to limit the backup storage growth rate, while preserving backup versions over an extended period of time.

Applying exclusion rules to historical backup snapshots

Afi now provides the ability to apply exclusion rules for OneDrive, SharePoint, or Google Drive to historical backup snapshots, allowing to wipe the excluded files that were backed up before the exclusion configuration and free the backup storage space they occupied.

Info

For safety reasons, exclusion rules are not applied to historical backup snapshots by default. You need to enable the corresponding option explicitly.

Configuring several SIEM system integrations

Afi now allows to add several SIEM system integrations (for example, Datadog and Teams) for audit log event ingestion within a single organization.

Datadog as a SIEM integration channel

Afi now supports ingesting audit log events to the Datadog SIEM service. You can follow this guide to set up your Datadog integration.

Restricting access to the Afi portal by country in IP allowlist settings

Afi now allows restricting access to the Afi portal by country on the Configuration → IP allowlist tab. You can combine both IP-range-based and country-based allowlist rules in your configuration.

Configuring a generic SAML identity provider for SAML SSO authentication

Afi now provides the ability to set up SAML SSO authentication with a generic SAML provider (for example, JumpCloud, OneLogin, Ping Identity, Duo, or Auth0) in addition to the existing Okta SAML SSO authentication option.

Improvements for the Invoices tab

The invoice list on the Licensing → Invoices tab now includes a payment due date for each invoice, with past-due invoices marked with the corresponding status.

Editing organization name and contact person details

Afi now allows to view and edit the name and contact person details of your Afi organization on the Configuration → Info tab.

The contact person for an Afi organization receives certain kinds of transactional emails related to major events concerning the organization, such as when a new tenant (data source) is added. Additionally, Afi personnel (account managers, support, etc.) might reach out to your organization's contact person as well as its Afi administrators when we need to proactively notify you about any issues related to your Afi account.