As IT departments strive to lower costs while operating more efficiently organizations are seeking efficient ways to ensure that data in their VMware environments is properly protected, according to Quest Software and ExaGrid Systems, which are marketing a joint virtual data protection solution. Using Quest vRanger in tandem with ExaGrid's disk backup appliance, the vendors say, provides customers with an efficient, disk-based backup solution tailored to meet the specific needs of VMware virtual environments.
Quest Software acquired vRanger as part of its purchase of Vizioncore in 2006, and fully integrated it into its product offerings last year, retiring the Vizioncore name and rebranding the product as Quest vRanger. "We have built up an installed base of over 40,000 customers and it is the leading data backup, recovery and replication solution for VMware environments," Mark Edwards, senior product manager for Quest vRanger, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
The product backs up and recovers virtual machines and their individual files running inside the guests and it also can replicate virtual machines and the guest data from one site to another, says Edwards, noting that the two companies have worked together going back to the Vizioncore days. "We have just accelerated that recently though. We do have well over 100 joint customers. Both sides have made investments to makes sure that the two solutions work out of the box and are plug and play. We are driving for quick time to value and low total cost of ownership."
Customers often will try to extend the data protection solution they are using in their physical environment but then they seem to struggle with the capabilities that the more general purpose legacy backup and recovery solutions provide, says Edwards. As a result, they start looking for an easier way to enable protection and recovery of their virtual infrastructure and applications, he adds.
The combination of vRanger and ExaGrid appliances delivers an efficient, disk-based backup solution for virtual enviroments with data deduplication, enabling customers to combat data growth, reduce their storage footprints, and ensure the recovery of critical VMware data, says Edwards. vRanger recognizes ExaGrid appliances as disk targets, meaning backups are automatically stored on the system.
"The value we bring to the table is that first and foremost we have very high performance appliances so that the amount of time it takes for customers to protect their data is dramatically reduced from other options they may pursue," says Marc Crespi, vice president of product management, ExaGrid Systems. vRanger features a patented Active Block Mapping (ABM) technology which scans block maps to back up only changed blocks with active data. Combined with support for VMware Changed Block Tracking (CBT), this reduces the amount of data transferred to the ExaGrid appliance, which then further reduces the backup size by up to 50-to-1 with its patented zone-level data deduplication process.
Deploying vRanger in tandem with ExaGrid enables both image-level and file-level restores, and the native catalog in vRanger makes it both fast and easy to conduct granular recoveries, according to the vendors. In addition, the joint solution allows customers to safely copy vRanger backups offsite by way of the ExaGrid appliance, and enables fast, reliable recoveries over the WAN in the event of a disaster.
For more information about vRanger, go here.
More information about Quest Software is available at www.quest.com.
More information about ExaGrid's disk backup appliance is available from ExaGrid Systems, Inc.