Vendor Landscape: Cloud Backup

Match cloud economics with on-premise reliability.

Info-Tech Research Group

Introduction
The Cloud Backup Vendor Landscape is full of startups that are innovating and iterating. However, best-in-class solutions do exist.
This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:

IT leaders and storage managers tasked with

selecting an offsite, or cloud-based, backup solution.

Define what distinguishes enterprise-class

cloud backup from consumer-grade solutions.

Any organization looking to reduce capital

expenditure and administrative burden on backup storage, enhance disaster recovery capabilities, or simply looking to learn more about cloud backup vendors.

Make sense of how cloud backup vendors

differentiate themselves from competitors.

Shortlist cloud backup vendors based on

which best align with your business requirements.

Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary
The enterprise cloud backup market is still very nascent, with the oldest participating player being
founded in 2005, and most being founded after 2008. There are several basic features that define an enterprise-class cloud backup solution though, and the future for the cloud backup space looks bright.

Among the products evaluated, CTERA, TwinStrata, and Nasuni took top honors and were named
Champions. The solutions evaluated provide terrific value for whats offered, with appropriate solutions available for small, medium, and large businesses alike between the three vendors.

However, there are scenarios where solutions from other vendors are more appropriate, so defining
business requirements, and aligning that with the use cases presented is still an important step in the nascent, but burgeoning, market.

Info-Tech Research Group

Defining enterprise cloud backup: less reliance on the Internet, which improves the end user experience
Though cloud backup vendors Info-Tech spoke to mentioned competing against Mozy Pro and iDrive, these are not business-ready options.
In a recent survey, conducted by Info-Tech Research Group,
respondents indicated they had almost two times more Complete confidence in backup solutions that replicated to the cloud vs. those that backup directly to the cloud. The same respondents expressed more overall confidence in cloud replication solutions than disk-to-disk arrays. 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0%
Cloud Direct Tape Library Complete D2D VTL High Cloud Replication Moderate D2D Array

An enterprise-class cloud backup solution must include an on-premise cache of recently and frequently accessed files to mitigate any issues due to inconsistent Internet connectivity.

Info-Tech Research Group

Market Overview
How it got here
Evolved from traditional online backup - where you paid for an allotment of storage capacity and backed up servers directly to the Web to on-site appliances that compress, deduplicate, and cache data before replicating to the cloud.

Where its going

Commoditization of core cloud backup features is causing new service providers to differentiate themselves by specializing in niche markets. Youll be able to access files from anywhere, on any device, making enterprise-class cloud backup as easy to use as consumer-grade services. A simplification of backup architectures as cloud storage, both internal and external, matures. The use of tape for archiving will continue to decline as enterprises re-assess and refresh their backup strategies. Cross-cloud mirroring will become an industry standard feature within the next two years, lending additional reliability and redundancy.

Enterprise cloud backup solutions are defined by the ability to keep an on-site cache of frequently and recently accessed data, while completing incremental backups or snapshots to the cloud.
Currently a wide open space where few vendors have more than a few dozen clients, but those clients generate sizeable revenue.

Overall, disk-to-disk backup is the most popular backup target, with 62% of survey respondents saying they had recently implemented new backup capacity. However, the number of businesses deploying cloud backup was 15%; equal to the number of companies deploying tape.

Info-Tech Research Group

Cloud Backup Criteria & Weighting Factors

Product Evaluation Features Affordability Usability Architecture Vendor Evaluation Viability Strategy Reach Channel
Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will be around for the long-term. The solution provides basic and advanced feature/functionality. The five year TCO of the solution is economical. The solutions dashboard and reporting tools are intuitive and easy to use. The delivery method of the solution aligns with what is expected within the space.

Vendor is committed to the space and has a future product and portfolio roadmap.
Vendor offers global coverage and is able to sell and provide post-sales support. Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the channels themselves are strong.

Info-Tech Research Group

Every vendor in Cloud Backup meets the Basic Features, but who goes above and beyond in the areas that matter to you?
The Basic Features
Data is encrypted while being transmitted to, and at rest in, the data center. Only changed files or blocks are transmitted after the first backup. Non-proprietary access methods like REST APIs, WebDAV, and FTP must be available. The service stores (and can automatically delete) previous versions of files. The data center storing your data has successfully passed a SAS 70 Type II audit. Backup frequency can be scheduled along with a set start and end time. Storing frequently and recently accessed files on-premise to reduce bandwidth usage.

What Does This Mean?

The products assessed in this Vendor LandscapeTM meet, at the very least, the requirements outlined as Basic Features. All of the vendors go above and beyond the outlined Basic Features, most even do so in multiple categories. This section aims to highlight the products capabilities in excess of the criteria listed here.

256-Bit Encryption Incremental Backups Standard Access Methods File Versioning SAS 70 Type II Certification Scheduled Synchronization Local Cache

If Basic Features are all you need from your Cloud Backup solution, the only true differentiator for the organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs like cloud server mountable volumes, Web-based file sharing,

Info-Tech Research Group

Basic Features aside, vendors were evaluated on their individual advanced feature offering
Features
Cross-Cloud Mirroring Bare Metal Restore Advanced features scoring methodology: File Sharing

What We Looked For

Mirroring across geographically disparate data centers or multiple cloud storage providers. Restoring servers without an underlying OS and applications installed. Web-based file sharing via a hyperlink. Recognizing duplicated files and storing just one copy. Compressing the data before backup to reduce bandwidth utilization. Cloud storage volumes can be mounted by cloud servers for quick DR capability. Ability to initiate restores from remote locations via a graphical user interface. Ability to access files from remote locations via a graphical user interface. Backing up and storing files in their native file system, without proprietary protocols. Backing up devices without software agents on each device. A contract with service availability guarantees. Controlling upload and download speeds to manage bandwidth usage.

Deduplication
Info-Tech scored each vendors features offering a summation of their individual scores across the listed advanced features. Vendors were given one point for each feature the product inherently provided. Some categories were scored on a more granular scale with vendors receiving half points (see Partial functionality criteria). Data Compression Cloud Server Mountable Volumes Restore From Anywhere Access From Anywhere Native File System Agentless Architecture Service Level Agreement Bandwidth Throttling

Info-Tech Research Group

Cloud Backup Total Cost of Ownership Scenario

How we calculated the cost

Example graph from Cloud Storage TCO Calculator

An Info-Tech client provided a scenario for comparing

the cost of cloud backup solutions in order to determine the value provided.

The scenario presented included an existing SAN,

being used primarily as a file server, which requires costly upgrades to increase the capacity. The current usage is 1TB out of the 1.3.TB capacity.

Storage growth is projected to be 10% year over year,

which was also factored into the five year cost calculation.

Info-Tech Research Group used the Cloud Storage

TCO Calculator to account for all possible costs including hardware, software licensing, data transfer and storage usage. Cloud backup solutions vary widely in cost
Source: Info-Tech Research Group

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