From Backup to Clean Recovery: Building an On-Premises Ransomware Clean Room with VCF 9.1

This article discusses the limitations of immutable snapshots and replicated copies in ransomware recovery, emphasizing the need for a trusted recovery environment. It introduces VCF 9.1 with VMware Advanced Cyber Compliance to build an on-premises isolated clean room. The workflow includes candidate selection, isolated validation, EDR analysis, staging, clean-replica creation, application validation, recovery, reprotection, and failback. Key design considerations are network isolation, identity separation, controlled external access, capacity, dependencies, and decision rights. The article contrasts traditional DR with ransomware recovery, highlighting the need for investigation and containment before returning to production.