Datrium Disaster Recovery Adds Edge Computing Protection

Datrium disaster recovery capabilities are extending to edge computing environments through the company’s new DRaaS for VMware Cloud on AWS service.

Datrium also built the broadened SaaS service to protect remote and branch offices (ROBO) for business and enterprise customers. The company’s DRaaS for Edge provides data protection and disaster recovery for VMware workloads in edge environments and ROBOs. So when using the service, if a successful ransomware or other cyberattack strikes, businesses can quickly fail over to their Datrium DRaaS capabilities.

Also announced is the general availability of Datrium DRaaS Connect for VMware workloads running on HCI, SAN and NAS systems.

The DRaaS services are cloud-native and offer pay-per-use cost savings, built-in backup, instant RTO and efficiency compliance checks for users. Datrium DRaaS is built on the company’s ControlShift workload orchestrator and provides fully automated failover to VMware Cloud on AWS. Those failovers are based on live mounts of VM snapshots held in AWS S3.

Datrium DRaaS Connect

DRaaS Connect is available for two vSphere deployments — for VMware vSphere On Premises and for VMware Cloud on AWS. Datrium says the on-premises version extends Datrium DRaaS to any VMware vSphere on-premises infrastructure with efficient replication of VMware vSphere snapshots. Those snapshots are stored deduplicated, compressed and encrypted on Amazon S3. A cloud-based control plan then manages it to define VM protection groups and their frequency, replication and retention policies. On failback, DRaaS will return only changed blocks back to VMware vSphere and the local on-premises infrastructure through DRaaS Connect.

The DRaaS services enable users to orchestrate a failover from one VMware Cloud Software-Designed Data Center in an AWS Availability Zone (AZ) to another AZ. DRaaS Connect for VMware vSphere On Prem will be available in late May. DRaaS Connect for VMware Cloud on AWS will be available in the second quarter. You can get DRaaS for Edge computing in the fourth quarter.

Sazzala Reddy, Datrium’s co-founder and CTO, told Channel Futures that the new services add critical capabilities for partners and customers.

Datrium’s Sazzala Reddy

“Datrium DRaaS Connect will enable organizations running any VMware workload to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of DR and reduce the risk of ransomware attacks without needing to rip and replace their primary storage system,” said Reddy. “DRaaS Connect now makes on-demand, cloud DR with built-in backup accessible to organizations running SAN, HCI, NAS and non-Datrium DCHI solutions.”

And the edge protection allows customers to protect all their VMware workloads regardless of where the data resides, he said.

“In the event of a ransomware attack or other disaster, IT teams can create an onsite backup copy of data and they can recover locally or fail over on demand to Datrium DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS, achieving instant RTO.”

The resulting backups using Datrium disaster recovery services are immutable and encrypted at rest and over the wire, he said.

“IT teams can manage and deploy DRaaS for Edge from a central location, which simplifies remote site management,” said Reddy.

Partner Benefits

For channel partners, the new products can help them better protect their customers, said Reddy. “It can better assist them in quickly and effectively recovering from disasters leveraging Datrium DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS,” he said. “Channel partners can deliver cloud-native, on-demand disaster recovery to more customers and protect all of their VMware workloads.”

Channel partners will also see some new …

… edge computing revenue streams with the latest offerings, Reddy said.

“It brings new services opportunities as channel partners can help their clients create DR runbooks,” he said. “As companies are taking a closer look at all organizational expenditures, especially as a result of the current pandemic, software-only SaaS solutions are becoming more attractive and easier to sell than traditional hardware on-prem devices.”

Mike Piltoff is strategic marketing vice president with Datrium reseller Champion Solutions Group. He says the new products will especially help SMBs with limited IT staffs and tight budgets.

Champion Solutions Group’s Mike Piltoff

“IT DR has been a consistent conundrum for business the last 30 years,” said Piltoff. “Everyone knows they need it, but it has been placed in the insurance bucket. And up until now, it’s a very expensive insurance endeavor that has been delayed and deferred for decades.”

The COVID Connection

The new Datrium disaster recovery services will help as users continue to react to the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis, he said.

“This pandemic has caused IT DR to resurface as a primary concern again. Our clients are now looking at remote worker productivity as a critical aspect in a complete IT operation that includes the utility concept that allows costs to vary based on IT needs by the minute.”

The new DRaaS services help partners as well because they can keep disaster recovery costs lower for customers, he said.

“Don’t forget — we have a vested interest in our clients surviving. It’s always a good business helping your best clients survive,” Piltoff added.

IDC analyst Phil Goodwin says the new services address a common DR use case — VMware recovery from on-premises to cloud.

IDC’s Phil Goodwin

“It is a highly orchestrated recovery, which reduces the need for runbooks and manual effort in the recovery,” said Goodwin. “It’s not an attempt to be all things to everyone, but rather target a specific need with a focused solution.”

The expanded capabilities will allow partners to bring on DR to VMware environments that need better protection, he said.

“DRaaS is the fastest growing segment of the data protection market,” Goodwin noted. “IDC estimates that the DRaaS market will be $4.5 billion in 2019 growing at 15.4% CAGR through 2023. Using the Datrium solution will allow resellers to tap into this market.”