Cirtas Expands Bluejet Integration With Amazon S3

Cirtas Systems announced the expanded integration of its Bluejet Cloud Storage Controller with Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) to support Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS).

Amazon RRS is more affordable for backing up data to the cloud as compared to the standard redundancy option, which is optimized for primary storage. Enterprises usingCirtas Bluejet can now implement Amazon S3 for storing primary copies of Tier 2 and Tier 3 data and simultaneously leverage Amazon RRS as an off-site repository for backups of primary data remaining on local storage arrays.

Public cloud storage services like Amazon S3 offer an alternative for enterprises looking to sidestep the cost and complexity inherent to physical storage arrays to create a more scalable and affordable storage environment. Cirtas eliminates the security, bandwidth, compatibility, availability and performance barriers to large-scale use of cloud storage and delivers an enterprise-ready solution that deduplicates both primary and backup data before sending it to the cloud, lowering associated storage utility fees. With Cirtas Bluejet, enterprises create a cost-effective storage solution for simultaneous primary storage in the cloud and backups to the cloud. Since Amazon RRS and Amazon S3 standard redundancy storage can easily coexist on the same Bluejet appliance and be utilized alone or at the same time, users can opt to first implement Bluejet for backup and evolve their storage environment to incorporate primary storage in the cloud over time.

"Amazon’s Reduced Redundancy Storage can translate into significant cost savings for companies seeking to back up large amounts of data, particularly when used in combination with the WAN optimization, compression and deduplication features of a cloud storage enablement solution like Cirtas Bluejet," said Terri McClure, senior analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group.

Backup and Disaster Recovery
for Tier 1 and Other Local Data
For companies that want an affordable backup-to-the-cloud solution, Amazon Reduced Redundancy Storage offers a cost effective option for storing secondary data copies, such as backups, at lower levels of redundancy than primary data with a savings of 33 percent on storage costs compared to Amazon’s standard redundancy service.

Together, Cirtas Bluejet and Amazon RRS deliver a cloud storage solution for backup and disaster recovery that can lower storage TCO. Bluejet’s byte-level deduplication delivers up to 100x reductions in backup data set size, reducing RRS storage costs even more – to as low as $0.00037 per gigabyte of data stored each month. This is the equivalent of storing a 50 terabyte backup data set for less than $20 per month.

For distributed enterprise organizations with multiple datacenters to manage, deploying a Cirtas Bluejet also simplifies disaster recovery processes and eliminates the need for restores to take place at the point of origin. Businesses can now restore data replicas from the cloud to any location where a Bluejet appliance is present, resulting in fast disaster recovery.

Cloud-powered Primary Storage
that Eliminates the Need for Backup
Although enabling backup to the cloud is valuable, the combination of Amazon S3’s physical data protection with Bluejet’s logical data protection capabilities also provides a platform from which to store primary data sets in the cloud – without the need for separate backup processes and no loss of data protection.

Amazon S3 provides a storage infrastructure designed for mission-critical and primary data storage, where objects are redundantly stored on multiple devices across multiple facilities within the Amazon S3 cloud environment. Used with Cirtas CloudSnap, the point-in-time cloud snapshot feature built into the Bluejet Cloud Storage Controllers, enterprises can achieve a primary storage solution for Tier 2 and 3 data sets that combines the replicated data protection of Amazon S3 with the logical point-in-time snapshot capabilities of Cirtas Bluejet to eliminate the need to perform separate backups, thereby simplifying storage management and reducing costs.

"The expanded integration of Bluejet with Amazon S3 to now support both standard and reduced redundancy cloud storage options signals our confidence in Amazon as a strategic partner," said Dan Decasper, CEO and cofounder of Cirtas. "The cloud isn’t just for dormant data anymore. Our aggressive roadmap for Bluejet will continue to provide our customers with a purpose-built enterprise-focused storage solution that enables the cloud to be leveraged for a broad and diverse set of applications – including primary storage, backups and disaster recovery."