NetApp challenges the status quo with new AltaVault solutions and services

28 May 2015

In today's business environment, traditional backup is slow, risky, expensive, and complex. Users expect instant recovery and minimal data loss, but IT struggles to keep pace using legacy backup and recovery strategies. To meet these demands, NetApp, Inc. introduced NetApp AltaVault, previously SteelStore, cloud-integrated storage solutions and services, which will provide customers with the ability to quickly backup data to any cloud at up to 90 percent less cost than on-premises solutions.

Data protection

The enterprise backup storage footprint is growing, yet budgets and acquisition costs remain flat and bandwidth costs and constraints become more acute with larger datasets. Adding to these challenges, many organisations still rely on tape, increasing the risk of lost media in transport and leading to increased downtime, data loss and the inability to adequately test disaster recovery procedures.

NetApp challenges the status quo with new AltaVault solutions and services

"A hybrid cloud backup strategy incorporating NetApp AltaVault solutions delivers compelling economics, speed and security so organisations can meet their backup and recovery service levels," said Phil Brotherton, vice president, Cloud Solutions Group, NetApp. "Data lifecycle solutions like AltaVault are key elements of NetApp's vision for a data fabric, which gives customers the confidence that no matter where their data lives, they can control, integrate, move, secure and consistently manage it."

"Nearly half of organisations, when asked if they could start over, would change their approach to data protection," says Jason Buffington, senior analyst for data protection at ESG. "And for many, 'the cloud' will be part of that data protection transformation. In fact, 88 percent of respondents to a recent ESG survey cited 'cloud extensibility' as important, very important or critical for their future data protection strategy. Customers of all sizes that are looking to easily add cloud-storage to their existing (or new) data protection topology would be well served to look at cloud-gateways that are specifically designed for data protection scenarios - like NetApp's AltaVault."

The AltaVault solution

The new AltaVault solution, which includes physical, virtual (VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V), and cloud-based (AWS and Azure) appliances, addresses the customers challenges while integrating with existing backup software to preserve prior investments. Benefits include:

• Industry-leading data reduction: inline deduplication and compression, resulting in up to a 30:1 data reduction ratio, which means less data is stored in the cloud allowing the customer to send it there more quickly.
• Extended choice: AltaVault now offers the flexibility to choose the scalable offering that is right for you: physical, virtual, or cloud-based appliances in the AWS or Azure clouds. Organisations can store more critical data, and get it back more quickly when needed.
• Seamless integration: AltaVault integrates easily with NetApp SnapProtect® and the backup software of the customer's choosing. AltaVault solutions and services can send backup data to all leading public and private cloud storage providers.

Customer services

Our new AltaVault solutions will include an extended services offering and help optimise IT operations by providing performance support for the backup and archive environment throughout knowledge transfer, on-site and remote troubleshooting and customised proactive care. In addition, NetApp experts will help customers build a roadmap for data protection that aligns to their business needs and requirements and identify and prioritise data that is suitable for the cloud. The outcome is a solution-based proposal with actionable recommendations tied to an overall cloud strategy.

Services from NetApp and its partners help customers take advantage of AltaVault's cloud capabilities, which include cloud strategy workshops, along with design, implementation and support services to simplify overall data protection processes and optimise backup and archive performance.

"At Konica Minolta, we were looking for a reliable data recovery solution for our mission-critical systems in the event of a major disaster in Japan, ultimately to improve our business continuity. NetApp AltaVault (formally "NetApp SteelStore") has strengthened our disaster recovery capability, and furthermore, it reduced the related costs by shifting our data backup destination of a mission-critical system to an offshore public cloud. We deployed NetApp AltaVault without having to make any change to our existing system, and now move data easily and rapidly between the public cloud and on-premise as needed," said Akira Tai, executive officer and general manager, Corporate IT Planning Division, Konica Minolta, Inc.

"Data storage became our first foray into the public cloud, with our remote job sites it made sense to utilise the cloud as a backup repository. With access to a public cloud way we wouldn't have to invest in more hardware to accommodate our growing storage," said Dominic Silvia, director of IT, Blach Construction. "By choosing AltaVault, we knew we had a solution that would provide more value over the long term than other competitive solutions. We now save time that is better served improving IT infrastructure at job sites, so that our offsite employees have access to advanced technology solutions."