Purpose-Built Backup Appliances: A Buyer's Checklist - Zift Solutions
Purpose-Built Backup Appliances: A Buyer’s Checklist In the race to protect and recover growing volumes of data quickly and efficiently, there’s a mounting demand for “plug and play” solutions that deliver the scalability and flexibility enterprise environments need, at a cost competitive price that are easy to buy. This is the where integrated purpose-built backup appliances (PBBA) can fill the need. Those that have been designed to deliver truly automatic storage configuration, fully integrated advanced features such as deduplication and virtualization support and simple, single-point support can truly deliver exceptional value for your organization’s backup requirements. Yet, not all backup appliances are created equal. To derive the most value from your PBBA selection, follow this buyer’s checklist. It outlines key features to consider for your next PBBA purchase so that you can realize the most value for your backup investment.
Commvault offers flexibility and choice to address data protection challenges. Commvault Backup Appliance — Easy to buy, deploy, and manage.
THE BASICS When looking at your PBBA options, there are some basic requirements that will ensure that your appliance of choice truly delivers the value and operation you require. Consider these basic points as your baseline:
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EASE OF PURCHASE. An appliance should be available as an integrated solution including pre-installed backup software, and server and storage hardware that’s pre-configured and validated for the specific workload, all available in a single package for easy procurement.
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EASE OF DEPLOYMENT. Review the backup appliances’ deployment guidance. The most effective appliances can be deployed in a couple of hours to save you valuable IT resources.
¡
SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT. A backup appliance, while comprised of multiple technology components, should offer support for both the hardware and software from a single source to save you time and finger-pointing headaches
¡
SCALABILITY. Select a solution that will not only offer a wide range of usable capacity to support your current and future requirements, but that also makes adding additional capacity easy. The more ‘plug and play’ the solution is, the better, vs. having to reconfigure your environment every time you add capacity.
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FLEXIBILITY. To accommodate future potential requirements for your backup environment, select one that can be deployed as a single appliance, or that can be combined with other appliances to share a deduplication pool or scale beyond two appliances for large environments. This will ensure a longer life of your appliance.
¡
MANAGEABILITY. To conserve valuable IT staff resources and time, select a backup appliance that offers centralized management and reporting via a central, easy to use console. To further reduce complexity, consider a solution that also enables client software deployment across multiple appliances.
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EXPANDABILITY. As you look at the expected life for your new backup appliance, consider its expandability to support other key features as your environment grows, including support for and integration with snapshot management, archiving, tape out and Search and eDiscovery, all managed from a single console. Selecting a solution with support for these optional features gives you peace of mind knowing that you are ready to support any additional functionality required by your business, further optimizing your total cost of ownership.
ADVANCED FEATURES Every organization has unique data protection needs, and often those needs change and grow with the demands of your business. Selecting a PBBA that will not only support your backup needs today, but that can extend to efficiently deliver the features you need tomorrow requires close evaluation of your backup appliance’s full feature set and options. Here are some additional considerations to assess so that you select the backup appliance that meets your distinct requirements.
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SOFTWARE/DEDUPLICATION RESILIENCY. Most, if not all, appliances provide some level of hardware availability (e.g., redundant and hot-swappable power supplies, fans, hard drives), but few provide an equivalent level of software resiliency, making the media agent a single point of failure. For a truly resilient appliance solution, the deduplication should provide resiliency to complement the hardware. Ideally, the architecture should also allow you to easily scale to Petabytes of data while providing load balancing and failover capabilities. STORAGE OPTIMIZATION. A true integrated appliance will support enterprise class deduplication, including source-side deduplication, which reduces network traffic and optimizes storage costs. The architecture should also support replication of deduplicated data to a disaster recovery site.
¡
SINGLE PASS BACKUP, ARCHIVE AND REPORTING. If you face high rates of unstructured data growth, consider selecting a backup appliance that will deliver data protection, retention, and reporting with a single, low-impact scan of data. This eliminates unnecessary operations that consume precious time and resources.
¡
ADVANCED VIRTUALIZATION SUPPORT. An appliance should support physical and virtual environments for both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, as well as offer support for Citrix XenServer. And while VM protection is a requirement, a holistic approach to cloud management that spans the entire VM lifecycle is increasingly important. As organizations adopt private cloud strategies, they need the ability to build, protect, and optimize their infrastructure. This means extending capabilities like VM provisioning and management to end-users (leveraging a policy-driven approach) to increase productivity and agility. As a result, you also need the ability to reclaim and redeploy wasted resources from idle/stale VMs and archive them when they are no longer needed. Make sure to select an appliance that satisfies all of these needs today to help avoid obsolescence. .
SUGGESTED READING >> “451 Group: CommVault Enters Backup Appliance Market.” According to the 451 Group, "We think that CommVault will be a formidable player in the PBBA market and will give market leaders a run for their money." READ THE FULL REPORT
PDF
www.bit.ly/jd82nN
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ENDPOINT DATA PROTECTION. Laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones can be some of an organization’s least protected resources. If extending your backups to endpoints is in your plans, consider a backup appliance that integrates desktop and laptop backup, providing the ability to auto-discover new desktops and laptops as well as the ability to install backup agents automatically to reduce administrative workload. Using this type of advanced solution enables end users to find and restore files from any backup on any client they are authorized to access through either a web console or mobile device. Additional optional capabilities may include support for remote wipe, geolocation, and/or secure file sharing capabilities.
¡
INTEGRATION WITH HARDWARE ARRAY SNAPSHOT MANAGEMENT. A sophisticated backup appliance will offer the ability to integrate into existing snapshot environments and serve as a backup target for snapshots.
¡
SEARCH & EDISCOVERY. For total visibility into protected data, and the ability to comply with legal, regulatory and compliance audits, select a backup appliance that offers optional support for sophisticated Search and eDiscovery capabilities. This can help you eliminate your company’s exposure to risk.
¡
BACKUP TO TAPE. Select a backup appliance that offers optional support for integrated backup to tape.
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ADVANCED REPORTING. No backup solution is complete without being able to deliver the reporting that keeps you proactive and agile. Select a backup appliance that can provide robust, global reporting including capacity management and planning. It should also provide you with the insight you need into SLAs as well as operational and instrumental level views of the backup environment.
After reviewing these criteria, you’re likely to find most of these features to be important. If so, consider evaluating the Commvault® Backup Appliance. Partnered with industry leaders, Commvault delivers a best of breed integrated purpose-built backup appliance combined with the power of Commvault’s software. The result is a single, integrated solution that combines software, hardware and support into a single package so that you can quickly and efficiently protect, manage, backup and recover your data.
©1999-2015 Commvault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Commvault, Commvault and logo, the “CV” logo, Commvault Systems, Solving Forward, SIM, Singular Information Management, Simpana, Simpana OnePass, Commvault Galaxy, Unified Data Management, QiNetix, Quick Recovery, QR, CommNet, GridStor, Vault Tracker, InnerVault, QuickSnap, QSnap, Recovery Director, CommServe, CommCell, IntelliSnap, ROMS, Commvault Edge, and CommValue, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Commvault Systems, Inc. All other third party brands, products, service names, trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of and used to identify the products or services of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change without notice.
Take a closer look. Review deep dive information, technical specs, and more at commvault.com/appliance.
PROTECT. ACCESS. COMPLY. SHARE. COMMVAULT.COM | 888.746.3849 | [email protected] © 2015 COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Commvault offers flexibility and choice to address data protection challenges. Commvault Backup Appliance — Easy to buy, deploy, and manage.
THE BASICS When looking at your PBBA options, there are some basic requirements that will ensure that your appliance of choice truly delivers the value and operation you require. Consider these basic points as your baseline:
2
¡
EASE OF PURCHASE. An appliance should be available as an integrated solution including pre-installed backup software, and server and storage hardware that’s pre-configured and validated for the specific workload, all available in a single package for easy procurement.
¡
EASE OF DEPLOYMENT. Review the backup appliances’ deployment guidance. The most effective appliances can be deployed in a couple of hours to save you valuable IT resources.
¡
SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT. A backup appliance, while comprised of multiple technology components, should offer support for both the hardware and software from a single source to save you time and finger-pointing headaches
¡
SCALABILITY. Select a solution that will not only offer a wide range of usable capacity to support your current and future requirements, but that also makes adding additional capacity easy. The more ‘plug and play’ the solution is, the better, vs. having to reconfigure your environment every time you add capacity.
¡
FLEXIBILITY. To accommodate future potential requirements for your backup environment, select one that can be deployed as a single appliance, or that can be combined with other appliances to share a deduplication pool or scale beyond two appliances for large environments. This will ensure a longer life of your appliance.
¡
MANAGEABILITY. To conserve valuable IT staff resources and time, select a backup appliance that offers centralized management and reporting via a central, easy to use console. To further reduce complexity, consider a solution that also enables client software deployment across multiple appliances.
¡
EXPANDABILITY. As you look at the expected life for your new backup appliance, consider its expandability to support other key features as your environment grows, including support for and integration with snapshot management, archiving, tape out and Search and eDiscovery, all managed from a single console. Selecting a solution with support for these optional features gives you peace of mind knowing that you are ready to support any additional functionality required by your business, further optimizing your total cost of ownership.
ADVANCED FEATURES Every organization has unique data protection needs, and often those needs change and grow with the demands of your business. Selecting a PBBA that will not only support your backup needs today, but that can extend to efficiently deliver the features you need tomorrow requires close evaluation of your backup appliance’s full feature set and options. Here are some additional considerations to assess so that you select the backup appliance that meets your distinct requirements.
¡
¡
SOFTWARE/DEDUPLICATION RESILIENCY. Most, if not all, appliances provide some level of hardware availability (e.g., redundant and hot-swappable power supplies, fans, hard drives), but few provide an equivalent level of software resiliency, making the media agent a single point of failure. For a truly resilient appliance solution, the deduplication should provide resiliency to complement the hardware. Ideally, the architecture should also allow you to easily scale to Petabytes of data while providing load balancing and failover capabilities. STORAGE OPTIMIZATION. A true integrated appliance will support enterprise class deduplication, including source-side deduplication, which reduces network traffic and optimizes storage costs. The architecture should also support replication of deduplicated data to a disaster recovery site.
¡
SINGLE PASS BACKUP, ARCHIVE AND REPORTING. If you face high rates of unstructured data growth, consider selecting a backup appliance that will deliver data protection, retention, and reporting with a single, low-impact scan of data. This eliminates unnecessary operations that consume precious time and resources.
¡
ADVANCED VIRTUALIZATION SUPPORT. An appliance should support physical and virtual environments for both VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, as well as offer support for Citrix XenServer. And while VM protection is a requirement, a holistic approach to cloud management that spans the entire VM lifecycle is increasingly important. As organizations adopt private cloud strategies, they need the ability to build, protect, and optimize their infrastructure. This means extending capabilities like VM provisioning and management to end-users (leveraging a policy-driven approach) to increase productivity and agility. As a result, you also need the ability to reclaim and redeploy wasted resources from idle/stale VMs and archive them when they are no longer needed. Make sure to select an appliance that satisfies all of these needs today to help avoid obsolescence. .
SUGGESTED READING >> “451 Group: CommVault Enters Backup Appliance Market.” According to the 451 Group, "We think that CommVault will be a formidable player in the PBBA market and will give market leaders a run for their money." READ THE FULL REPORT
www.bit.ly/jd82nN
3
¡
ENDPOINT DATA PROTECTION. Laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones can be some of an organization’s least protected resources. If extending your backups to endpoints is in your plans, consider a backup appliance that integrates desktop and laptop backup, providing the ability to auto-discover new desktops and laptops as well as the ability to install backup agents automatically to reduce administrative workload. Using this type of advanced solution enables end users to find and restore files from any backup on any client they are authorized to access through either a web console or mobile device. Additional optional capabilities may include support for remote wipe, geolocation, and/or secure file sharing capabilities.
¡
INTEGRATION WITH HARDWARE ARRAY SNAPSHOT MANAGEMENT. A sophisticated backup appliance will offer the ability to integrate into existing snapshot environments and serve as a backup target for snapshots.
¡
SEARCH & EDISCOVERY. For total visibility into protected data, and the ability to comply with legal, regulatory and compliance audits, select a backup appliance that offers optional support for sophisticated Search and eDiscovery capabilities. This can help you eliminate your company’s exposure to risk.
¡
BACKUP TO TAPE. Select a backup appliance that offers optional support for integrated backup to tape.
¡
ADVANCED REPORTING. No backup solution is complete without being able to deliver the reporting that keeps you proactive and agile. Select a backup appliance that can provide robust, global reporting including capacity management and planning. It should also provide you with the insight you need into SLAs as well as operational and instrumental level views of the backup environment.
After reviewing these criteria, you’re likely to find most of these features to be important. If so, consider evaluating the Commvault® Backup Appliance. Partnered with industry leaders, Commvault delivers a best of breed integrated purpose-built backup appliance combined with the power of Commvault’s software. The result is a single, integrated solution that combines software, hardware and support into a single package so that you can quickly and efficiently protect, manage, backup and recover your data.
©1999-2015 Commvault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Commvault, Commvault and logo, the “CV” logo, Commvault Systems, Solving Forward, SIM, Singular Information Management, Simpana, Simpana OnePass, Commvault Galaxy, Unified Data Management, QiNetix, Quick Recovery, QR, CommNet, GridStor, Vault Tracker, InnerVault, QuickSnap, QSnap, Recovery Director, CommServe, CommCell, IntelliSnap, ROMS, Commvault Edge, and CommValue, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Commvault Systems, Inc. All other third party brands, products, service names, trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of and used to identify the products or services of their respective owners. All specifications are subject to change without notice.
Take a closer look. Review deep dive information, technical specs, and more at commvault.com/appliance.
PROTECT. ACCESS. COMPLY. SHARE. COMMVAULT.COM | 888.746.3849 | [email protected] © 2015 COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
