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Virtualization Drives Backup and Recovery Opportunities for the Channel

With the rise of virtualization it’s becoming clear that more companies than ever are struggling with backup and recovery and by extension disaster recovery. There are several key issues that IT organizations are struggling to manage, including fundamentals such as the fact that ther amount of processor capacity available to the backup and recovery application […]

Written By: Michael Vizard

May 15, 2012

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With the rise of virtualization it’s becoming clear that more companies than ever are struggling with backup and recovery and by extension disaster recovery.

There are several key issues that IT organizations are struggling to manage, including fundamentals such as the fact that ther amount of processor capacity available to the backup and recovery application on the server has declined because the number of applications running on the server has increased.

In addition, the sheer volume of data that needs to be backed up has increased to the point where IT organizations are missing their backup windows. In some organizations, the amount of time required to back up certain Big Data applications actually exceeds the number of hours in the day.

To make matters worse, many IT organizations have lots of underutilized storage capacity; they just can’t really use it for backing up files. That not only creates additional expense, it often requires them to buy dedicated backup and recovery systems.

According to Michael Kuehn, vice president of worldwide channel sales for Syncsort, a provider of data protection software, this perfect data protection storm is creating a significant opportunity for partners of NetApp. Syncsort has partnered with NetApp to allow IT organizations to backup and recover their data, files and applications in a way that is not only significantly faster, but also allows them to maximize the investments in NetApp storage systems.

Syncsort allows IT organizations to use NetApp storage for both their primary and secondary storage needs. That’s not only a benefit to the customer, it also means that the NetApp partner doesn’t have to invest in additional engineering talent or manage a relationship with another vendor to provide secondary storage systems.

The Syncsort software leverages algorithms to reduce the backup window by only requiring customers to ship changes to data at the block level. That means less stress on the network and server. On the recovery side of the equation, Syncsort claims that customers can recover their data in as little as two to five minutes.

By making Syncsort software easier to use the company is trying to push the adoption of its data protection software into the small to medium (SMB) market via the NetApp channel. The company chose to standardize on NetApp because all the major other storage vendors opted to build and sell dedicated backup and recovery systems, versus NetApp, which is trying to make a case for using the same storage systems for both primary and secondary storage. Next up Synscort plans to expand the management capabilities of its data protection software in a way that will give customers greater visibility into what’s actually taking place within the backup and recovery process.

The good news for solution providers is that virtualization is starting to force a lot of conversations concerning not only data protection, but the entire role of storage in the data management process. As that conversation continues to unfold solution providers will not only discover opportunities to deliver a variety of data management services; they should begin to see customers asking them to help reengineer their entire data management processes. All of which can stem from asking some pretty basic questions about how they are managing the backup and recovery process now that most of their applications are running on virtual servers.

Michael Vizard

Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a writer for publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight, Channel Insider and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

Virtualization Drives Backup and Recovery Opportunities for the Channel

Michael Vizard

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