Unitrends Release 5 Software for its Backup Appliances

Unitrends launched Unitrends Release 5, the latest version of its all-in-one backup appliance software.  

Featuring a new Adaptive Deduplication data reduction capability, vStorage-based (VDDK) VMware ESX and ESXi Backup, and a new implementation and new features associated with its D2D2D (Disk-to-Disk-to-Disk) archiving subsystem, Release 5 optimizes backup and disaster recovery processes for more than 100 different versions of operating systems and applications.

"At Unitrends, delivering affordable, easy to use data protection solutions with enterprise-class features for the heterogeneous SMB environment is our core mission," said Dr. Mark Campbell, chief operating officer, Unitrends. "With the availability of Release 5, we have expanded on this mission with compelling features for data reduction, VMware protection and true rotational archiving.  This, combined with our integrated, simple and elegant interface, gives users the single-pane-of-glass management they need for the reliable protection of all their operating systems and applications."

Generally available this month,
Release 5 offers the following new key features:

• Adaptive Deduplication – Release 5 features a hybrid compression/deduplication data reduction mechanism that adapts dynamically to reduce the storage footprint of the content it is protecting while overcoming the overhead, high costs, and slow recovery times associated with other deduplication implementations. Called Adaptive Deduplication, this storage-based deduplication technique is designed to work with efficiency on affordable hardware platforms.
• vStorage-Based (VDDK) VMware Protection – VMware has announced that future versions of VMware won’t support VCB.  Release 5 offers a vStorage API-based VMware protector that offers direct support from Unitrends appliances for VMware ESXi 3.5 and ESXi backup 4.0 as well as VMware ESX 3.5 and ESX 4.0.
• Enhanced Disk-to-Disk-to-Disk Archiving System – Release 5 provides a new archiving system for disk-to-disk-to-disk (D2D2D) that supports all of the features of Unitrends’ past archiving systems and adds increased performance and capabilities for appending archives.
• New VSS-Based SQL Agent – Release 5 includes a new SQL Server backup option for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005 that utilizes the VSS backup foundation Microsoft offers.

Release 5 is available on all Unitrends all-in-one server backup appliances which are offered in separate configurations for backup, disaster recovery and combined backup and disaster recovery processes, both on premise and offsite. Disk-to-disk-to-disk devices are also available to use with Unitrends’ backup and disaster recovery appliances for rotational archiving.

Release 5 is available on all current generation Unitrends backup appliances. Pricing for Unitrends appliances starts at $2,495 ($75 per month for a three-year lease). Unitrends appliances feature Unitrends’ No Limits data protection licensing, a simple licensing approach that gives users freedom to store as much on the device as they wish until the physical capacity is full.