Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting Data Availability and Protection Solutions for Cloud Era, 2016-17

Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a Data Availability and Protection Solution for the Cloud Era, 2016-17

This report was written by Roy Illsley, principal analyst, infrastructure solutions, Ovumhttps://www.ovum.com, part of TMT intelligence.

Summary

Catalyst
Organizations are demanding higher levels of system and network availability, and cost-effective BC. However, all this must be managed and maintained by a single department with one IT budget. This often leads to the creation of tensions between the conflicting demands and priorities of production requirements where access and speed are desired qualities but must also provide resiliency and recovery. The main area of contention is the distinction between BC, DR, backup and recovery, and the role of cloud-based solutions. The question for many is how these different approaches share the budget to deliver what the end user wants, and how to minimize the impact of any loss of data or service. This report provides a side-by-side comparison of leading data protection and availability solutions, looking at the ability to deliver a holistic backup and recovery strategy. The results are delivered as the Ovum Decision Matrix (ODM), which considers the significance of all three aspects of a backup and recovery strategy and how these influence how technology is deployed, used, and controlled.

Ovum view
Backup and recovery are aspects of systems management that are typically forgotten about until they are needed. However, managing the production systems and the backup systems as a single entity has significant benefits as well as significant challenges. Technology advances have created the position where providing the infrastructure to provide resiliency does not have to mean redundant and expensive capacity, and the systems can be used as part of an active backup plan. However, security remains a key issue with all aspects of data protection, and Ovum believes that this area represents the next wave of product innovations.

The terminology surrounding the concept of data availability is creating market confusion. For example, continuous availability, HA, fault tolerant, BC, and DR have been used by the x86 virtualization vendors because potential data availability provides benefits from using the virtualization technology. Cloud computing has introduced many more products on the market offering solutions that address the issues surrounding the question of how to provide a differentiated level of service availability based on business priority. The solutions nearly all operate across both the on-premise (physical and virtual environments) as well as the different flavors of cloud environments.

Ovum research (ICT Enterprise Insights 2015/16 – Global: ICT Spend and Sourcing, n=1,580) found the average percentage of the IT management budget spent on data protection was 16%. This level of investment seemed high for most organizations, but when Ovum research investigated where the infrastructure investment was being directed, the reason for this spending became clear. Ovum research (ICT Enterprise Insights 2015/16 – Global: ICT Drivers and Technology Priorities, n=4,750) found that on average, 40% of the respondents were planning new or major investments in IaaS based on public clouds, compared to 43% of respondents investing in private on-premise clouds. The combination of the growth in cloud computing with the increased focus on data protection is driven by the lack of trust in this mixed infrastructure environment. Cloud computing and the move to an as-a-service delivery method is also beginning to create tensions and splits in organizations’ data protection and availability strategies, with questions being raised about location, security, and latency.

The issue for CIOs is that these technologies need to be administered and configured correctly to provide solutions to the many different requirements for resiliency that organizations demand. Ovum believes that the management and technology combined represent a powerful combination in enabling organizations to make choices about the type and coverage of data protection and availability needed for their particular circumstances. However, we believe that the thorny issues of budgets, responsibilities, and priorities must be identified and resolved before any strategic data availability plan is implemented. The strategic plan must also take due note of the IT and organizational strategy in terms of the use of new technologies and readiness to adopt new delivery methods.

Key findings

Veeam improved its position from the previous ODM 2014-15 and is now the clear market leader, demonstrating a consistent above average performance with five sub-category leading scores as well as being the leader in the market impact category and features categories.
IBM remains in the leadership classification, and is the leading vendor in terms of the number of sub-category leading scores with six.
Unitrends in its first ODM was second in the features category, while overall being classified as a challenger.
Commvault was second overall, like the previous ODM in 2014-15, and demonstrated a consistent above average performance in all categories.
Dell remains a leader, but its software division has recently been sold off to a private equity firm, and will be relaunched under a new name on November 1.
Actifio was classified as a leader in its first ODM and was second in terms of the number of leading sub-category scores with six.
HPE slipped to challenger with only recording three sub-category leading scores.
Asigra and Datto in their first ODM were both challengers, with Asigra recording four
sub-category leadings scores, and Datto the leader in the execution category.
Artisan in its first ODM was classified as a challenger but was the clear leader in the operational management sub-category.
Arcserve was classified as a challenger and was the leader in the deployment and TCO sub-category.

Market and solution analysis

Ovum Decision Matrix: Data Availability and Protection Solution
for the Cloud Era, 2016-17
The market in data protection and availability has moved a long way from the traditional backup and recovery approaches that many organizations have used in the past. In fact, nearly 50% of the vendors are new entrants to the Ovum Decision Matrix, demonstrating how the market has changed. Today, the cloud has introduced a new layer of capability when it comes to data protection and availability. The ODM has evolved over the years and now focuses on how the data assets of an organization can be protected while still providing availability for scenarios such as DR or accidental data loss. The difference from the previous ODM 2014-15 is that Veeam has taken over as the clear leader, with Commvault retaining its position as second overall. The other leaders are a mix of established vendors and newer vendors with solutions designed and built in the cloud. The interesting feature of this report is that, despite the four-month notice of the production schedule for the report, two of the previous leaders (Symantec now Veritas, and EMC now Dell) despite the four-month notice of the production schedule for the report choose not to participate.

Ovum Decision Matrix: Data Availability and Protection Solution for the Cloud Era, 2016-17

Overall technology assesment score (scale 1-10)
(Source: Ovum)

Expanded view of Ovum Decision Matrix: Data Availability and Protection Solution for the Cloud Era, 2016-17

Overall technology assesment score (scale 1-10)
(Source: Ovum)