Arkeia Network Backup V10 for Hybrid Cloud

Arkeia Software, Inc. announced the latest version of its Network Backup Suite that creates a tape-free alternative to getting backups offsite and recovering them quickly.

It allows administrators to protect large data volumes in the cloud without incurring high monthly bandwidth charges. Hybrid cloud backup solutions leverage Arkeia’s advanced Progressive Deduplication data compression technology.

Network Backup v10 enables hybrid cloud backups by overcoming the limitations of last-mile bandwidth – allowing overnight delivery of physical media to substitute for WAN bandwidth as needed.

The company introduces hybrid cloud ‘seeding and feeding’ in which administrators can employ any combination of physical media and internet transport to replicate backup sets on a LAN to or from remote cloud storage. It makes it practical to replace tapes for off-site storage by allowing large backup sets like full backups to be moved on physical media and small backup sets like incremental backups to be sent over the wire.

"Any effective backup must include getting data off site to protect against natural or man-made disasters," said Ashar Baig, senior analyst at Taneja Group. "Hybrid cloud backups, which back up data to the LAN and then replicate it over WAN links to the cloud, are an increasingly attractive way to move business-critical backups offsite. Arkeia’s ‘seeding and feeding’ features overcome the mid-market’s key challenge of expensive WAN bandwidth. Arkeia’s hybrid cloud approach is a great way for organizations to get their data off site without the complexity of using tapes on a daily basis by overcoming bandwidth limitations."

Seeding and Feeding
Arkeia’s hybrid cloud solution moves beyond rudimentary ‘cloud seeding’ in which the first backup is moved off-site on physical media, followed by incremental backups sent over the WAN.

• First, it allows incremental backups to be replicated by wire before the first full backup is received at the destination replication server, eliminating the exposure that occurs when incremental backups must be delayed waiting for the initial full backup to be delivered to the cloud.
• Second, physical media can also be used for ‘feeding’: transporting any backup set too large to be replicated conveniently over the WAN. Internet and physical media transfers can be combined in any combination, in any sequence.
• Third, similar transfers of deduplicated backups can be used to restore one or multiple backup sets to the LAN from the cloud. Moving backup sets in deduplicated format accelerates recovery, especially when large numbers of machines must be recovered quickly.
• Fourth, Arkeia’s hybrid-approach saves organizations money because not all backup sets have to be replicated to the cloud, giving administrators the flexibility to pick and choose based on the cost of cloud bandwidth and cloud storage.

"The high cost of last-mile bandwidth is the major obstacle slowing the adoption of hybrid cloud backup by the mid-market. Organizations planning to replace tape and gain the benefits of moving their backups to the cloud will hesitate when they factor in the costs of bandwidth required," said Bill Evans, Arkeia CEO. "Arkeia Network Backup v10 makes hybrid cloud backup practical by solving the problem of last-mile bandwidth. Our unique ‘seed and feed’ capabilities permit MSPs and other resellers to deliver hybrid cloud backup services to the mid-market. Any customer with enough WAN bandwidth to transport most incremental backups can enjoy the flexibility and reliability of cloud backup."

Immediate Provisioning of Temporary 1Gbps WAN Links
Network Backup v10.0 supports replication with USB-connected disk drives and disk arrays. Disk arrays in redundant RAID configurations allow large volumes of data to be transferred in a single package. A disk array with 10TB of useable capacity delivered overnight is comparable to a 1Gbps WAN link – but available as-needed without provisioning delays or expensive monthly fees.

VARs and MSP customers will inventory USB-connected arrays, providing them to end users as needed, upon first backup and infrequently thereafter. External storage is ideal because the disk drives are needed only infrequently and do not occupy valuable real estate in backup appliances, because they are available in redundant arrays, and because arrays can scale far beyond the capacity of a single drive.

"Arkeia’s v10 promises the perfect balance of data protection and cost containment for offsite storage of backups," said Jean-Michel Castronovo, MD of storage specialist S2mi near Paris, France. "This release gives us exactly the features we want, allowing us to leverage the convenience of WANs for nightly transmission of incremental backups and the high bandwidth of USB-connected disk arrays for full backups. Arkeia’s Progressive Deduplication makes this all possible by delivering compression ratios up to 90%. Deduplication helps our customers save money by reducing storage volume and network performance requirements while shortening backup windows. We evaluated Arkeia, Acronis, and Veeam to protect our customers’ virtual environments and selected Arkeia."

Source Volume Pricing
Network Backup v10 introduces source-volume pricing to simplify licensing. License prices are based on the amount of data under protection and include unlimited target storage volume, unlimited agents for physical machines (e.g. Windows, Linux), and unlimited agents for hypervisors (e.g. VMware and Hyper-V).

"Source volume pricing improves customer satisfaction by making it easy to predict data protection costs," explains Kevin Reynolds, CEO at Signal Computer Products, Inc. in Westford, MA. Signal is an Arkeia partner and regional reseller of storage solutions. "We appreciate that Arkeia is delivering capabilities to make it easier for resellers to deliver solutions quickly."

Availability and Pricing
Network Backup version 10.0 is scheduled for availability this summer.  The release is free to all customers on current maintenance contracts.

For perpetual licenses, protection of the first terabyte of source volume costs $5,000 with unlimited agents. Prices of subsequent terabytes start at $2,500/TB, descending to $1,250/TB. Subscription licensing is also available. Agent-based pricing will co-exist with source-volume pricing during a transition period.

To participate in the beta program