As more and more enterprises move their IT functions to the cloud, data backup and disaster recovery are #1 and #3 in a list of the top uses for cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), according to a survey of IT professionals conducted by ESG Research. (Running production applications is #2.)
Together, the backup and disaster recovery use cases can offer a big opportunity for Dell channel partners to help their customers address a big misconception that can leave their data vulnerable to loss. And what is that? It’s assuming that by moving their backup and disaster recovery to the cloud, their chosen IaaS platform provides data protection.
Of course, that’s not necessarily the case. For example, Amazon’s AWS IaaS customer agreement clearly states that while it takes full responsibility for the availability of infrastructure and related services, customers must take responsibility to secure and protect all their data assets. Microsoft Azure takes the same position regarding its IaaS, while offering backup and disaster recovery as services.
DIY cloud data protection can cost more than expected
Another opportunity for Dell channel partners lies with those enterprises that have taken cloud data protection into their own hands, but are doing it wrong. For example, over-rotating their cloud backups can cost them as much or more than legacy on-premise methods.
To help these customers, channel partners can find the tools they need in the Dell Data Protection Software, Enterprise Edition. It covers all consumption models, including public, private and hybrid clouds, plus traditional on-premise infrastructures and virtualized environments — all using a single management interface.
Importantly, the architecture of Dell Data Protection Software Family is optimized for in-cloud data protection, whether covering application and database workloads, user files or long-term retention of data for archiving and compliance purposes.
Data protection architecture matters
Why does cloud data protection architecture matter? Inefficient and marginally effective uses of cloud resources or choosing anything less than the best-architected, most cost-effective solution can send cloud costs soaring as usage scales.
Here are six key advantages that Dell in-cloud data protection can provide our channel partners’ customers:
- Performance: Client-direct backups in both Linux and Windows can be done without the bottlenecks caused by media servers, which many competitors’ data protection solutions require. This boosts throughput dramatically. So, for example, a user of Dell in-cloud data protection can backup 28TB of data to the cloud in just 12 hours.
- Efficiency: Client-side deduplication and compression rates of up to 38.2x the original data size can reduce bandwidth and cloud storage consumption.
- Scale: Using CloudBoost, customers can protect up to 6PB of logical capacity in the cloud, while a single NetWorker server can protect up to 2,000 clients and 1,000 concurrent sessions.
- Security: Encryption of data in-flight and at-rest uses AES-256, the largest key size available, with source-to-cloud communications via SSL/TLS protocols. Files are divided into individually encrypted segments, and encryption keys are never stored with the data, so no single segment or key can compromise it.
- Self-Protection: Data configurations and metadata are automatically backed up to the cloud at periodic intervals to allow rapid recovery.
- Low Cost: All data resides on low-cost, highly durable S3 object storage in the cloud, and, thanks to leading dedupe and compression rates compared to competitive solutions, the Dell solution requires comparatively fewer compute instances and block resources.
With all these advantages, the in-cloud Dell Data Protection Software is extremely cost-competitive. In fact, to assess the cost performance of this solution relative to two leading competitors, ESG Research was hired to conduct an in-depth audit and analysis of all three solutions operating in the AWS cloud.
Compared to the competitors*1, the Dell solution was found to deliver:
- Up to 71% reduction in the amount of S3 storage required for the backup repository
- Up to 88% lower monthly cost for the required EC2 and EBS data protection application resources
- Up to 50% or more lower total monthly cost for in-cloud data protection infrastructure
If Dell channel partners add these competitive benefits to all the inherent advantages of the Dell Data Protection Software Family, the solution can practically sell itself. For more information, download the 10-page ESG Research report, “Economic Value of In-cloud Data Protection with Dell Data Protection Software.” Also, visit the Dell Data Protection Software Family web page.
*1ESG White Paper, “Economic Value of In-cloud Data Protection with Dell Data Protection Software,” June 2017. Compared to two competitors. Actual cost-savings will vary.