How Veeam earned its place in the DoW’s secure ecosystem

In today’s national security environment, data is just as important as equipment in the field. Every mission, every system, and every decision depends on having accurate, protected, and recoverable information. Recent attacks on critical infrastructure have made it clear that adversaries are increasingly targeting the systems behind the mission. If a single backup is compromised, entire operations may be at risk.

That reality has pushed the Department of War (DoW) to raise the bar for how technology partners secure their software and supply chains. 

“The U.S. government’s objective is to protect the constituency, protect American assets, and protect our critical infrastructure. It’s heavily reliant on the technology and the systems provided by the private sector, so the U.S. government needs to know, or have a deep understanding of, how secure all of the critical infrastructure operators are,” said James Burchfield, Veeam’s vice president of global government strategy.

Defense agencies cannot afford to deploy half-baked tools, especially those responsible for safeguarding mission-critical data. Vendors must validate how they build, secure, and maintain their products.

Among those vendors, Veeam has distinguished itself as a proactive and trusted partner. In 2025, the data resilience company voluntarily entered the DoW’s rigorous Supply Chain Product Assurance Playbook (SCPAP) process, providing detailed documentation of its development practices, architecture decisions, code lineage, and security controls. That proactive engagement ultimately earned Veeam formal recognition from the Department for its supply chain security posture.

This milestone reinforces a core reality: Resilience cannot be a static checkbox. It must be a measurable, repeatable process grounded in transparency, validation, and continuous improvement.

Setting a new standard for trust

While many vendors approach compliance reactively, taking steps only after mandates are in place, Veeam’s philosophy has always been that security and resilience are built in, not bolted on. 

As data sets grow larger and workloads become more distributed, agencies need backup and recovery tools that support the quick, secure restoration of operations after a cyber incident, system failure, or insider misuse. Veeam’s platform does this via:

• fast, verifiable recovery
• protection against ransomware
• secure deployment in FedRAMP High and Impact Level 4 (IL4) environments
• alignment with zero-trust principles
• auditability across data movement and access

By aligning its capabilities with DoW security requirements, Veeam ensures that data availability never comes at the expense of compliance. Its architecture continuously verifies, encrypts, and audits data across every stage of its lifecycle. It’s this level of built-in rigor and commitment that ultimately earned Veeam the DoW’s recognition.

“It’s a seal of approval from the highest levels within the department, indicating that we have gone above and beyond in terms of cybersecurity standards and protecting critical infrastructure,” said Burchfield.

Building confidence through collaboration

Defense modernization depends on trusted, cooperative relationships between government and industry. Veeam’s engagement with DoW evaluators reflects what that partnership should look like: open conversations, shared expectations, and a clear understanding of how to protect mission data across its lifecycle.

The process wasn’t without complexity, especially as requirements evolved, but Burchfield said early dialogue helped both sides address questions quickly and avoid the delays that often accompany authorization efforts.

“Veeam set out on a mission to address challenges that plague all of industry,” Burchfield said. “In collaboration with the US government, we developed a deep understanding of what best practices look like and how we could actually improve those best practices.”

By inviting DoW stakeholders into its internal processes, Veeam helped accelerate reviews, reduce uncertainty, and give defense teams real visibility into how resilience is engineered. That level of openness is uncommon, yet increasingly necessary as agencies navigate hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The result is a framework for shared security accountability, not just compliance. 

Veeam’s journey to DoW authorization offers a template for how industry leaders can strengthen the defense industrial base. By embracing transparency and demonstrating proactive accountability, Veeam shows how vendors can support national security beyond product features through secure development, repeatable assurance processes, and a shared commitment to resilience.

“Work with the U.S. government. Don’t work against them,” Burchfield advised. “You’re going to be able to position your company, not only to be a good vendor to the U.S. government, but as a security-first organization. And when you’re talking about a defense environment, that is the most important thing. You have to be able to provide the tools, but the tools have to be secure.”

Learn more about Veeam’s trusted partnership with the Department of War.