ExaGrid, ATScloud Partner On Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service

The solution provides a fast, secure and low-cost alternative to traditional disaster recovery processes, including off-site tape and investing in a secondary data center, said Bill Hobbib, vice president of marketing for Westborough, Mass.-based ExaGrid.

"For customers looking to replicate backup data off-site for disaster recovery, we are providing Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service with a secure hybrid cloud," Hobbib said.

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Under the new partnership, ExaGrid is working with Dallas-based ATScloud to provide cloud-based backup and recovery services using that cloud provider's fully managed Tier 4 data centers, Hobbib said.

Tier 4 data centers feature redundant infrastructure including the cooling and power equipment, and are rated at 99.995 percent availability.

"Data is secured in a Tier 4 data center, with customers not required to invest in up-front capital," Hobbib said. "To bring data back after a disaster, customers have two options. First, they can have a box shipped from ATScloud with their data, with the ATScloud SLA providing for shipment within 48 hours. Or customers can spin up virtual servers in the ATScloud for fast recovery of their most mission-critical applications."

ExaGrid's backup appliances feature post-process deduplication, which allows a full backup to land in the appliance before the deduplication begins, Hobbib said. This allows fast recovery of data from the local appliance compared to technologies that use in-line dedupe, he said.

"In virtual environments, we can boot a virtual machine off an ExaGrid system in minutes," he said. "With in-line dedupe, you need to rehydrate the virtual machines and data first, which can take hours."

The ExaGrid appliances also feature a scale-out storage architecture, which increases both performance and capacity as more nodes are added, Hobbib said. "So as the data grows, the backup window stays fixed," he said.

About 98 percent of ExaGrid's revenue comes from channel partners, Hobbib said. The new Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service from ExaGrid and ATScloud will be offered through both companies' solution providers, he said.

PUBLISHED MARCH 7, 2013