6 Storage Solutions For Cloud-Based Archiving

Data Protection Appliances: For When Cloud-Based Data Protection Software Isn't Enough

Software that takes advantage of the capacity and flexibility of public or private clouds is an important component for a complete data protection solution. But for customers looking beyond simple data protection, cloud-focused backup and recovery software may not be enough.

For an extra layer of protection combined with a burst of performance, data protection appliances may be the answer. These appliances are typically based on commodity hardware to provide local backup and recovery for performance, although software-based virtual appliances are also available. For additional resiliency and to provide remote access to data in a disaster, they also replicate data to external clouds.

CRN has assembled a list of six data protection appliances spanning the customer gamut from businesses with 10 seats to tens of thousands of seats. Turn the page to explore the possibilities.

Barracuda Message Archiver

The Barracuda Message Archiver from Campbell, Calif.-based Barracuda Networks simplifies user access, email management, and eDiscovery/compliance. It offers customizable email retention rules, and allows organizations to designate auditors to apply litigation holds on specific information. Litigation holds preserve the data from being tampered with until the litigation hold expires or is removed.

The Barracuda Message Archiver can be run in Microsoft Azure to provide a secure way to archive mail from cloud-based email services like Office 365. This gives organizations a secure conduit from their cloud email provider to an archive running in the Microsoft Azure cloud, giving customers a cloud-based solution to move many services off-site.

eFolder Cloudfinder

EFolder Cloudfinder, from Atlanta-based eFolder, is a cloud-to-cloud backup solution offering backup, instant full-text search and restore capabilities for cloud applications including Salesforce, Office 365, Google Apps and Box. Cloudfinder’s unified interface lets administrators search for and recover data across multiple cloud applications and users.

EFolder Cloudfinder provides unlimited retention for cloud applications so that partners can preserve client data from both active and inactive accounts. Data backed up in Cloudfinder is full-text indexed and instantly searchable. A user can search across historical snapshots and version history as well as use various filters such as email content, attachments, modified date, owner or title. Search results can be sorted by date or relevance and also grouped by type. Searches can be done across all of a customer's cloud applications.

HGST Active Archive System

San Jose-based HGST, a subsidiary of Western Digital, recently entered a strategic relationship with Tinton Falls, N.J.-based data protection and archiving software developer Commvault. Through the partnership, the HGST Active Archive System and the Commvault Data Platform deliver a backup solution that solves data management at scale and provides instant access to data archives -- all at a price point the company said rivals traditional tape.

HGST said the solution provides the lowest cost per terabyte for cloud-scale data backup, along with an archive environment that seamlessly grows to multi-petabyte scale and provides instant access to data.

Metalogix Archive Manager Exchange Edition 7.0

The Archive Manager suite from Washington, D.C.-based Metalogix gives businesses the ability to archive content from Exchange, Files, SharePoint and Social Media sources into a central archive for improved compliance capabilities for eDiscovery requests, data retention and change of custody compliance. Archive Manager Exchange Edition 7.0 improves mobile access, Office 365 backup, and advanced security and social media compliance capabilities and integrates into cloud, hybrid and on-premise environments.

Archive Manager Exchange Edition 7.0's native user interface and hierarchical storage management unit helps businesses meet legal compliance and performance requirements, improves search and recovery at the email and mailbox level, and establishes an efficient and standardized eDiscovery workflow.

Quantum Q-Cloud Archive

Q-Cloud Archive from San Jose, Calif.-based Quantum is a public cloud storage service providing on-demand access to cloud storage for increased flexibility, protection and availability. It works with Quantum’s StorNext 5 scale-out storage platform or Artico NAS archive appliance to extend intelligent policy-based tiering into the cloud, making it an easy way to incorporate the cloud into a workflow. No additional hardware or software is required.

Q-Cloud Archive provides access to a pool of off-premise storage through StorNext 5 data management software. By setting policies based on business requirements, StorNext automatically copies or moves data to Q-Cloud as a way to increase data protection, scalability or offloading of content from primary storage.

Zadara Storage Backup to Amazon S3

The Zadara Storage Backup to Amazon S3 (B2S3) solution from Irvine, Calif.-based Zadara Storage is an automatic, snapshot-based, continuous, incremental backup from the Zadara Virtual Private Storage Array (VPSA) solution to Amazon S3 (or compatible) object storage. It simplifies enterprise-grade backup-and-restore by providing a low-cost object storage target in increments as frequent as once a minute. Zadara B2S3 provides instant access to backed-up volumes.

Data backed up via B2S3 can be restored to any storage medium from any vendor, including Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), to help avoid vendor lock-in while enhancing archiving flexibility.