Syncsort Data Protection 4.0

Syncsort Incorporated announced Syncsort Data Protection 4.0, a component of the NetApp Syncsort Integrated Backup (NSB) solution.

As organizations increasingly turn to virtualization and cloud computing to gain efficiency, flexibility and cost savings, they face new challenges in completing backups of growing data volumes within compressed timeframes. Enhancements to NSB simplify the architecture, remove overhead and accelerate backup and recovery operations to meet new requirements of organizations as they move to cloud and virtualized environments.

NSB is a data protection solution for physical and virtual servers running in multi-vendor storage environments. With the enhancements to Syncsort’s data protection software, NSB provideS cloud-based data protection, enabling customers to meet shorter backup windows and recovery point objectives at a lower TCO. Based on hardware and software technology from Syncsort and NetApp, the NSB solution has gained customer and channel partner adoption since it was formally introduced to the market a year ago at VMworld 2010.

Enhanced Protection and Recovery for Cloud Investments
Efforts to consolidate and virtualize IT infrastructures can increase the amount of data requiring protection and put a strain on traditional backup methods. This can result in extended backup windows, failure to complete backups and higher risk to the business.

Syncsort Data Protection 4.0, which will be available within 90 days as part of the NSB solution, helps establish a new standard in meeting today’s requirements for reliable, fast and cost-effective data protection.

The new technology that Syncsort Data Protection 4.0 brings to NSB makes it a data protection and recovery solution for both private cloud investments and service provider deployments of cloud services. By storing all backups in native format and through its integration with VMware, NSB is able to recover applications in virtual and cloud environments in less than 10 minutes.

Fast recovery is particularly critical in remote site scenarios. With its Instant Virtualization technology, NSB is able to bring any remote site backup image online as a VM within minutes. Critical services are restored to end users while data recovery occurs in the background.

NSB offers flexibility and scales to match the needs of growing virtual and cloud infrastructures. Customers get the protection and recovery they need for their IT investments while also helping to keep costs under control.

Data protection with NSB extends to disaster recovery, leveraging the value of a single management console, and utilizing the speed and efficiency of replicated snapshots.

News Fact Details
Syncsort’s data protection software supports ‘near zero’ impact, non-disruptive backup and recovery of VMware virtual machines by eliminating the need to install backup clients in the guest operating system, and uses VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) to track changed blocks for greater efficiency and reduced costs.

The combination of VMware Agentless Backup support and patented Instant Virtualization and Instant Access capabilities in Syncsort’s data protection software delivers the restore functionality in NSB.

Specific restore types in the solution include:

• Rapid Virtual Machine Restore – by leveraging NetApp Snapshot copy technology, a VM can be restored in minutes. Optionally, a new VM data file can be created in the background while the VM is running, allowing for a full restore without additional downtime.
• Restoring VMDK Files – similar to restoring a virtual machine, this method uses NetApp Snapshot copies to restore one or more selected VMDK files in only minutes, providing rapid disk-level restore of data.
• Rapid File Browsing – restore method uses the solution’s Instant Access capability to map a single VMDK to any other node with a Syncsort agent for easy browsing of the guest file system.

Virtual-to-physical (V2P) data restore uses NetApp Snapshot copies to connect physical systems to VMDK images, allowing users to share data anywhere within their organization without regard to virtual and physical boundaries.
 
The new version of Syncsort’s data protection software can be installed in a VM to run ‘application-aware’ backup and granular recovery for VMs running Microsoft SharePoint, Exchange and SQL Server, in addition to the advantages of VMware Agentless Backup.

A new graphical user interface builds upon an existing strength to further extend ease-of-use advantage over competing products.

Support is also included for VMware vSphere 5, allowing NSB users to leverage the latest release of VMware’s suite of cloud infrastructure technologies.

"ESG’s recent research on VMware backup and recovery approaches found that the expansion of server virtualization deployments over the next two years is expected to flourish, making backup and recovery of virtual machines a critical priority," said Lauren Whitehouse, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "Solutions like NetApp Syncsort Integrated Backup than span both the physical and virtual worlds, and offer robust disaster recovery capabilities, provide tremendous potential for helping customers eliminate cost and complexity from their environments."

"Virtualization and cloud are fundamentally changing the requirements and optimal approaches for data protection," said Chris Cummings, vice president, Product and Solutions Marketing, NetApp. "NetApp Syncsort Integrated Backup offers a strategic approach to deliver accelerated backup and recovery while maximizing storage utilization to control costs, providing enterprises with the simplicity, flexibility, and efficiency required for today’s shared IT infrastructures."

"As traditional file-based approaches have increasingly failed in the new world of virtualized and shared IT infrastructures, enterprises of all sizes have been forced to rethink their data protection strategies and seek new approaches for meeting evolving backup and recovery requirements while also eliminating unnecessary cost and complexity from the equation," said Jeff Hornung, vice president, Product Management and Business Development, Syncsort. "NSB excels in filling a gap in the market for a single platform that seamlessly consolidates both the physical and virtual data protection realms while also being storage environment agnostic."