Archive for April, 2010

StorageCraft Technology’s ShadowProtect 4: A study in enterprise data protection

New server virtualization and quick server recovery features introduced

By Deni Connor
Principal analyst, Storage Strategies NOW
April 2010
Protecting your organization’s most valuable assets – your data – should be a priority for any business. Whether those data assets are stored on physical or virtual servers or desktop PCs in your environment, it is important to be able to not only back this equipment up, but to recover it as well in the event of a disaster or server failure.

StorageCraft’s introduction of new versions of its data protection software — ShadowProtect Server4, ShadowProtect Small Business Server 4, ShadowProtect  Desktop 4 and ShadowProtect  ImageManager Enterprise 4– this month is focused on rapid server recovery, server virtualization and an enhanced management interface – each an enhancement that will help an IT administrator to better manage and protect the physical and virtual machines in his environment.

Quick server recovery

ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise, available as an add-on to ShadowProtect  Server and ShadowProtect  Desktop, leads in the number of enhancements shipped. The software enables the consolidation of daily, weekly and monthly image backup files into a single image file to save on storage consumption and ease the management of the images maintained on the system. ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise consists of five critical capabilities: quick server recovery using HeadStart Restore (HSR) technology, image verification and re-verification, off-site replication, notification and consolidation.

Most important about the ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise software is its quick recovery of file and application servers. With HeadStart Restore technology, IT administrators can create jobs that capture a virtual machine image complete with incremental up-to-the minute changes. When a server fails, the virtual machine file can be selectively updated, the server prepared with ShadowProtect’s Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) technology and then rebooted to a VMware Disk Image (VMDK) or Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file. HeadStart Restore’s ability to apply the latest changes to the virtual machine file is optional as the last incremental backup applied to the virtual machine may include the problem that caused the server to fail.

HeadStart Restore is particularly useful in its ability to provide nearly instantaneous disaster recovery for servers, especially those containing large, terabyte-sized amounts of data. In this situation, when an IT administrator wants to recover the server, he or she can simply choose and finalize the last incremental backup taken and recover the server and its data and thus, eliminate the time it would take to restore the entire multi-terabyte server.

Further, the ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise software verifies and rechecks backup image chains to ensure that servers can be recovered into a known good state in the event of a disaster or failure. The software verifies the backup image by calculating an MD5 checksum and comparing it to the MD5 checksum generated when an image was created.

ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise also allows off-site asynchronous replication over IP, which lets administrators vault point-in-time backup images to another location for disaster recovery or archival purposes. And, the software includes a notification process that alerts the IT administrator of the status of backup jobs based on e-mail configurations.  (A “standard” version of ShadowProtect ImageManager ships with ShadowProtect Server, Small Business Server and Desktop without any additional cost. But it doesn’t include HSR or replication.)

Finally, ShadowProtectServer and Desktop now include the ability to restore server operating systems, data and applications to dissimilar hardware or virtual environments and to multiple targets via its Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) capability. Hardware Independent Restore can also be used to facilitate migrations to a new server or desktop or to consolidate servers and desktops to virtual environments.

Server virtualization

Other enhancements to StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect products focus on server virtualization. ShadowProtect Server 4,  ShadowProtect Small Business Server 4 and ShadowProtect  Desktop 4 introduce several improvements to virtual server backup, including VirtualBoot and Virtual Converter capability.

VirtualBoot allows the booting of virtual servers from a point-in-time backup image using Oracle/Sun’s open source VirtualBox virtualization technology (VirtualBox.org). This solution uses Virtualbox as a virtual machine environment for mounting the ShadowProtect image. VirtualBox links to the latest ShadowProtect point-in-time image and mounts “on-the-fly” to boot the physical machine as a virtual machine. When the virtual machine comes up, the backup job continues to run, creating a fast incremental image of the state of the machine.

The Virtual Converter tool lets an IT administrator convert ShadowProtect backup images to either VMware disk image (VMDK) files or to Microsoft Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files for storage, reboot and server recovery purposes.

Simplified management

Finally, ShadowProtect 4 has a new management interface that allows centralized backup administration. From the management console, IT administrators can simultaneously push installations of ShadowProtect Server, ShadowProtect Small Business Server or ShadowProtect Desktop  to all Windows machines. A new agent discovery function can automatically discover agents or clients on the system that ShadowProtect can be pushed to.

The management console also lets administrators check the status of system backups and import or export server information. And a new grouping function allows administrators to create groups of physical or virtual machines for simplified management.

SSG-NOW Assessment

StorageCraft’s data protection products rate at the top of the list for meeting the needs of small and mid-size businesses. The incorporation of rapid server recovery via the ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise functionality is particularly useful as it establishes an easy-to-implement way for SMBs to recover their Windows servers in the event of disaster or failure. StorageCraft has introduced a truly innovative feature in its product – its HeadStart Restore capability in ImageManager Enterprise starts restoring data as it backs up data, resulting in exceeding fast recovery.  In addition, its implementation of server booting from the open source VirtualBox technology is truly an innovative approach to recovery and booting of virtual machines.

Note: The information and recommendations made by Storage Strategies NOW are based upon public information and sources and may also include personal opinions both of Storage Strategies NOW and others, all of which we believe to be accurate and reliable. As market conditions change however, and not within our control, the information and recommendations are made without warranty of any kind. All product names used and mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. Storage Strategies NOW, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any damages whatsoever (including incidental, consequential or otherwise), caused by your use of, or reliance upon, the information and recommendations presented herein, nor for any inadvertent errors which may appear in this document.

StorageCraft is releasing ShadowProtect Desktop 4.0 today. Like ShadowProtect Server, it includes some of the same cool features in that are in ShadowProtect Server 4.0, such as VirtualBoot™ and backup verification and re-verification.

It’s also very easy to test drive it with the free 30-day trial version. The trial has all of the features of the full version, except for the recovery environment, which isn’t quite as restrictive as that may sound. For example, you can recover individual files and folders from backup images with the trial version, using the Explore Backup wizard and you can recover data volumes on your system, as well. You just can’t restore your system (primary) volume because you don’t have the bootable recovery CD.

So go ahead and test drive ShadowProtect Desktop 4.0. We have the trial up on our Web site, or you can download it from sites like PC World. Try it, you’ll like it enough to buy it.

StorageCraft released a brand new product this morning, ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise™ 4.0. ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise is an add-on feature for ShadowProtect Server™ and ShadowProtect Small  Business Server™. It has a few more features than the basic product, ShadowProtect ImageManager, which comes with all of the ShadowProtect™ products.

The revolutionary feature in ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise is HeadStart Restore™, which allows you to simultaneously restore your server backup images, while you’re still backing up your server.

“System restores often involve terabytes of data, which means a realistic RTO is hours,” said Scott Barnes, chief technology officer at StorageCraft. “With HeadStart Restore, we’ve drastically reduced the time it takes to recover your systems and data because most of the system and data recovery occurred before there was even a failure.”

With HeadStart Restore — or HSR — you set up a system restore “job” in ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise to begin the server recovery right away.

ShadowProtect Server continues to back up any incremental changes that are made on the server, which also get sent to the HeadStart Restore job and applied. The Lag Time Apply feature in HSR also allows administrators to delay incremental changes – to account for corruption from malware or a virus. By default, this is set to three days, but this can be changed to suit IT requirements.

In the event of a disaster, the administrator finalizes the restore – which usually takes seconds to apply the incremental updates – then prepares the virtual environment, runs ShadowProtect’s Hardware Independent Restore™ technology, reboots the server, and is back up and running. The elapsed time is several minutes, not several hours. So you’re able to restore a server with even multi-terabytes of data in 15-20 minutes.

“Being able to get a jump on the restore process with HeadStart Restore is a tremendous asset for our business and for our customers,” said Shawn Massey, director of NetAssist at Camera Corner/Connecting Point Computer Center. “We’re able to get servers up and running in a fraction of the time it used to take. Downtime is expensive, and knowing that it won’t take all day or all weekend to rebuild a server is invaluable.”

You can find all kinds of additional information about StorageCraft ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise 4.0 on the ShadowProtect product pages, including data sheets and white papers. Or e-mail sales@storagecraft.com.

StorageCraft released ShadowProtect Server™ 4.0 and ShadowProtect Small Business Server™ 4.0 this morning. There are some great new features in this new version that you will definitely want to check out.

In particular VirtualBoot™. With VirtualBoot, you can right click on any ShadowProtect™ image file and boot it as a virtual machine. This feature makes it very easy to test new software in your server environment or boot legacy systems for archival purposes.

“We could not be more excited about VirtualBoot and the other features that ShadowProtect 4.0 is bringing to the table,” said Sean Furman, president of STF Consulting. “The new functionality is truly game changing for us and we look forward to utilizing ShadowProtect 4.0 in our managed services offering.”

VirtualBoot uses Sun VirtualBox to boot the file into .VMDK or .VHD format.

Other features in ShadowProtect Server 4.0:

• Central management console,
• Virtual converter,
• ShadowProtect ImageManager™,
• Image verification and re-verification,
• Image consolidation,
• Resume on Interruption,
• Hardware Independent Restore™ (HIR),
• Bare metal recovery,
• Granular recovery of files and folders in moments.

Check out the ShadowProtect product pages for additional information, including data sheets, white papers and product tours.

It’s always exciting to win an award, even when you get them fairly regularly. If that sounds a little boastful, we really don’t mind because it isn’t boasting if it’s the truth. So ShadowProtect is in the spotlight again, getting another award. This time, it’s the “Riding the Crest” award from Programmer’s Paradise.

“StorageCraft is honored to receive the 2009 Riding the Crest award from Programmer’s Paradise,” said Curt James vice president of marketing and business development. “This award demonstrates that StorageCraft ShadowProtect continues to be recognized as a reliable disaster recovery solution not only for physical environments, but virtual systems, as well. ShadowProtect solutions are an excellent way to improve Recovery Time Objectives and keep business up and running.”

Programmer’s Paradise selects award winners based on total annual sales.

“The Programmer’s Paradise Riding the Crest Award to StorageCraft represents our customers’ choice as to the best-of-breed solution for business continuity and disaster recovery of their virtualized environments,” said Shawn Giordano, Vice President of Sales for Programmer’s Paradise. “They clearly recognize ShadowProtect’s value in minimizing downtime, improving business continuity and lowering their total cost of operations.”

This is the 14th year they’ve given out Riding the Crest awards.