Infrascale Backup and DR (DRaaS) Hybrid Cloud Solution for MSPs and VARs Servicing SMB and Mid-Market

Infrascale, Inc. announced Infrascale Backup and DR (IBDR), the next gen of the Infrascale DR (IDR) product sold to MSPs and VARs servicing SMB and mid-market.

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IBDR is a DR as a Service (DRaaS) hybrid cloud solution: one part software/hardware on-premises with customers’ data and servers and one part service infrastructure in the cloud. Together, these components are an insurance policy to prevent data loss and minimize downtime by providing recovery from crashes, ransomware/malware, natural disaster, human error, and all other forms of business disruption. This announcement highlights new appliances and flexible cloud configurations that improve the solution’s overall performance and ability to scale. These product innovations demonstrate further advancements of the firm’s corporate vision – to be the most trusted data protection provider.

Refreshed appliance line, 2 SSD-based models, and separation of cloud compute and storage
The company’s research indicates that 79% of SMBs believe that it is important to have a data protection and/or DR solution in place. SMBs and mid-market companies without the requisite IT experience – and possessing SMB budgets – frequently turn to MSPs/VARs to fill the gap. MSPs/VARs then choose firm’s solutions to bring these BC and DR needs to fruition.

“Today, all businesses are aware that it’s a matter of when they will lose their data and not if. Unfortunately, many MSPs and SMBs have been let down by their backup and DR partners, leaving them unprotected from the increasing threats. Infrascale understands that our MSP partners and their customers are looking for the right partner that they can trust, especially when disaster strikes and they need immediate access to their systems and data,” says Russell P. Reeder, CEO, Infrascale.

Based on analysis of current customer usage, IBDR offers a refreshed line of appliance models for the on-premises component of the solution, as well as new cloud configurations, that together are optimized for today’s SMB. In total, 6 new appliance models are being introduced – 2 of which are SSD-based. These SSD models will provide new levels of recovery performance when spinning up virtual or bare metal servers. Further, the cloud models offer simplicity and transparency by separating compute and storage – similar to public cloud consumption.

Performance gains
With IBDR, customers will continue to enjoy the control and choice they have today when recovering from a disaster – spinning up VMs on-premises for simple (micro) disasters (e.g., failed drives or localized data deletion) or recovering their servers in the cloud for offsite DR. Recovery time is always an imperative, to minimize downtime and data loss that impact business operations. While Infrascale already delivers an average 2-minute boot-ready time, the IBDR SSD hardware boosts storage IO/s to yield better performance for booted VMs. Internal testing shows ~5x improvement compared to previous models.

Jeff Parton, manager, network operations, Kerusso Activewear, Inc., agrees. “Prior to using Infrascale for DR, I’d grown accustomed to being down for three or four days with people idly waiting. With Infrascale, I was amazed at the speed of recovery! I can spin up an environment and get backup and running in a matter of 15mn. It is astounding how much money that saves us.“

Scaling modeled on public cloud
IBDR moves away from fixed cloud configuration and embraces the separation of cloud compute (for backup and boot) from cloud storage, thus offering new growth opportunities for both types of resources independently. With this modular approach, expansion in the cloud is always possible. As new retention requirements emerge or as a business grows, so too can its DR solution – without an appliance amendment or disruption to operations.

Flexibility
Customers may now mix and match to tailor an IBDR solution according to their specific needs – achieving the right performance/scale/cost trade-off. The smallest SMBs through the largest mid-market customers can find the perfect combination.

“By embracing the public cloud model, Infrascale eases the burdens that MSPs face when sizing a DR solution for a growing business with dynamic needs. IBDR provides the right components to start, and the expansion components to scale, when new requirements arise,” says Brian Kuhn, COO, Infrascale. “The product team is proud and excited to deliver this value to our partners.“

Name to reflect capabilities and true nature of solution
The improvements in performance, scalability, and flexibility alone would warrant a new name. However, the main purpose of the moniker change is to convey clarity for the value provided by the product. IBDR, as the name defines, provides both backup and DR. Of course, DR cannot exist without image-based backups. Calling out backup in the name illuminates the additional capabilities of IBDR to provide file and folder backup.

Builds on strong Infrascale heritage of eliminating downtime and data loss
As with its predecessor, IBDR offers:

• Breadth: It protects Windows and Linux physical or virtual servers – whether virtualized with VMware or Hyper-V – allowing the control of what, when, and how frequently.

• Minimized downtime: Speed to recover means less downtime. The company, through the patented de-dupe File System (DDFS), makes every backup look like a full image – boot-ready in minutes.

• Minimized data loss: Faster backup allows for more frequent backups and less data loss. DDFS thrives in environments with low throughput networks (less data to transfer, faster backups).

• Confidence: IBDR Boot Verifications test the integrity of backup image files, providing proof of successful image recovery. Customers always know when backups are successful.

• Predictability: In addition to providing comprehensive, mix-and-match service components, IBDR provides unlimited DR testing and failover, with no declaration required and no additional fees.

• Consistency: Regardless of configuration, partners will experience predictable monthly pricing.

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Resource:
Blog: Backup and Disaster Recovery Are Your Strongest Allies in the Data Wars