Barracuda Networks Acquires BitLeap

Barracuda Networks Inc.has completed the acquisition of BitLeap, a provider of local and offsite data backup and disaster recovery solutions. As part of the acquisition Barracuda Networks will now offer Barracuda Backup, a complete and affordable data backup and disaster recovery solution, to customers of all sizes and business types.

“BitLeap developed a compelling technology and services platform for delivering a unique backup solution to the market,” said Dean Drako, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks. “We believe that the combination of the trusted Barracuda Networks brand, our customer-centric business approach, as well as our extensive worldwide channel reach will enable us to offer an affordable backup solution to our current customers and to mainstream businesses of all sizes.”

Complete Data Backup Solution
Barracuda Backup is an affordable, integrated local and offsite data backup solution that combines the Barracuda Backup Server for rapid restoration on the local network with the Barracuda Backup Service, a secure cloud-based backup service to two geographically dispersed data centers for redundancy.

“No other backup solution provides an affordable means of combining local, appliance-based backup with two offsite replicas,” said Stephen Pao, vice president of product management for Barracuda Networks. "By maintaining three copies of each customer’s data, Barracuda Backup offers superior levels of disaster tolerance through hardware redundancy, geographically dispersed data centers, elimination of single points of failure, and distance solutions."

Barracuda Backup copies primary data from any operating system or storage platform and provides fast local storage and restorations, secure data transfers to offsite data centers and leverages industry-leading policy management for data retention. Barracuda Backup safely maintains backup data offsite using efficient replication techniques designed by Barracuda Networks to conserve bandwidth and minimize the cost of disaster recovery. 

Other capabilities include:

• Automatic backups. Administrators set the schedule for how often backups should run throughout the day. This eliminates the risks associated with manual backup techniques.
• Full Local Backup. The Barracuda Backup Server offers sufficient storage for a complete copy of an organization’s current and historical data.
• Fast Local Restore. Administrators can restore data directly from the Barracuda Backup Server at local network speeds. This is the quickest way to recover lost data or recreate historical data from local backups.
• Secure, Redundant Replication. Multiple layers of encryption, including AES 256-bit, protect the integrity of data transferred offsite using Barracuda Backup. Barracuda Networks’ two offsite data centers use highly redundant disk-based hardware in a fully encrypted and secure format.
• Data De-Duplication. Using advanced technology, Barracuda Backup reduces the storage and transfer requirements for backups by analyzing each file at the bit level and only copying, transferring and archiving new bit sequences. This advanced de-duplication technology is applied within a single file’s revision history as well as across the entire backup volume. De-duplication is also applied between data sets from multiple locations.
• Alert Notifications. Barracuda Backup automatically provides email alerts to administrators when service issues are detected, including when the Barracuda Backup Server goes offline. Other notifications are sent when errors or file warnings are detected in backups, or when, expected files for backup are missing.
• Regulatory Compliance. Barracuda Backup encompasses the security requirements to cover a wide range of industry-specific regulations such as HIPAA, for the healthcare industry, and Gramm-Leach-Bliley for financial organizations.

“Barracuda Backup eliminates the complexity and expense associated with most data backup solutions available for businesses today,” said Pao.

Automatic Health Monitoring and Provisioning
The Barracuda Backup user interface makes it easy to manage and back up data on the Barracuda Backup Server and to schedule reoccurring offsite data backups in the cloud. The Web user interface provides access and control of settings, reports, restores, statistics and account information in order to manage deployed Barracuda Backup Servers even across multiple locations. In addition, Barracuda Central, an advanced operations center, provisions and monitors the health of the Barracuda Backup Service and provides 24×7 technical support and emergency restoration assistance in the event of disaster or local backup system failure.

Continued Support for Current Customers and Partners
As part of the acquisition, Barracuda Networks plans to increase investment in product development in backup services and solutions. In addition, all of BitLeap’s employees have joined the Barracuda Networks team. Barracuda Networks will continue to work with all BitLeap sales channel partners, expanding the depth of its worldwide sales reach, and enabling them to provide better service and support to all existing and future customers.

Pricing and Availability
Barracuda Backup pricing includes a one-time hardware fee for the Barracuda Backup Server and a monthly subscription to the Barracuda Backup Service plans. Barracuda Backup Server pricing starts at $999 depending on model and Barracuda Backup Service plans start at $99 for 50GB of storage per month and varies according to how much storage is needed. Barracuda Backup is currently available in North America only.