Arkeia Network Backup Version 10 Release Candidate

Arkeia Software, Inc. has delivered a release candidate for Arkeia Network Backup v10.0.

Version 10.0 enables hybrid cloud backups by allowing administrators to combine physical media and internet transport to replicate backup sets on a LAN to or from remote cloud storage.

Leveraging Arkeia’s Progressive Deduplication data compression technology, v10 provides organizations with the ability to protect large data volumes in the cloud without incurring high monthly bandwidth charges. 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, Arkeia makes it practical to replicate backup sets on a LAN or to or from remote cloud storage for an inexpensive, tape-free alternative to offsite backup and recovery.

Seeding and Feeding
Arkeia’s hybrid cloud backup 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.

1. Arkeia 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Immediate Provisioning of Temporary 1Gbps WAN Links
V10 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.

Arkeia 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.

"Mid-market organizations have been looking for a way to simplify their backup processes while gaining the benefits of the cloud," said Bill Evans, Arkeia CEO. "Arkeia Network Backup v10 does just that – eliminating the need for tape-based backup with its cumbersome and continual requirements of shipping tapes offsite and minimizing WAN costs by solving the problem of last-mile bandwidth. Our hybrid cloud backup approach provides those in the mid-market with the best of both worlds while fully protecting their most precious business asset without breaking the bank."

V10.0 delivers support for drives, autoloaders, and libraries that use the newly released LTO-6 technology.

New platforms supported in v10.0 include:

• Fedora 18 x86 and x86-64
• NetBSD 6.0 x86
• Ubuntu 12.10 x86
• Windows 8 x86 and x86-64
• Windows 2012 x86-64

Pricing and Availability
Arkeia 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).

For perpetual licenses, protection of the first terabyte of source volume costs $5,000 with unlimited file and hypervisor agents. Prices of subsequent terabytes start at $2,500/TB, descending to $1,250/TB.

Subscription licensing is also available.

Arkeia’s agent-based pricing will co-exist with source-volume pricing during a transition period.

The release is free to all Arkeia customers on current maintenance contracts.