Pancetera, a developer of technology for protecting data in virtualized and cloud environments, this week unveiled new software for replicating virtual machines to a local or cloud storage appliance.
The new product, SmartMotion, is a virtual appliance which replicates virtual machines directly to any physical or cloud-based NAS target in a single step, said Jeff Drescher, vice president of marketing for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Pancetera.
SmartMotion takes a lot of steps out of the backup and replication process, Drescher said.
"Virtual machines today are typically first backed up to a staging server, while physical machines are backed up to a separate infrastructure," he said. "This creates a pretty complex environment for customers who want virtual and physical machines backed up to a common infrastructure."
SmartMotion virtual appliances, on the other hand, send backup data from both physical and virtual machines to any target NAS device, whether an onsite physical appliance or a virtual appliance in the cloud, Drescher said.
SmartMotion can also replicate or migrate running virtual machines, and can be used to create hot stand-by virtual servers either on local servers or in the cloud for use as part of a disaster recovery scenario, he said.
It works with customers' existing data protection software to keep acquisition costs low, he said. "We're not trying to replace Symantec Backup Exec or NetBackup," he said. "Customers can use whatever they want."
Solution providers or MSPs can use Pancetera's SmartMotion technology to provide customers the ability to recover their physical or virtual machines in a cloud within minutes, Drescher said. They can also sell SmartMotion as an add-on service such as a disaster recovery service regardless of which backup technologies are used
SmartMotion is currently available, and is promotion priced at either $499 per server socket or $99 per virtual machine. Drescher said that that price is good until the end of this calendar quarter, and that the price after the quarter ends will depend on customer uptake of the product.
