Overland Storage’s recent acquisition of the Snap Server line of NAS storage products from Adaptec breathes new life into a product line that had all but faded from view. Adaptec’s lack of focus on the Snap Server line coupled with its changing message about what it intended to do with it made Snap Server a logical acquisition target for Overland Storage, which was actively looking to add NAS to its portfolio of disk-based backup products. But now that Overland Storage has it, the big job of explaining how Snap Server fits into customer backup environments falls to Steve Rogers, Overland Storage’s Director of Product & Solutions Marketing.
Rogers recently hosted a webinar that highlights some of the key features found on the Snap Server that make it particularly well suited for multi-site deployments. While we will get into greater detail on specific features of Snap Servers in upcoming blog entries, here are some features that immediately caught our attention:
- Embedded Data replication. Every company’s data replication needs are different. Some want all data replicated to one central site. Others configure two or three sites as partner sites and configure data to replicate between those sites. Still others want some combination of all of these replication scenarios. Using Snap Server’s native EDR (Enterprise Data Replicator) software, companies can securely schedule, compress and even manage network bandwidth utilization between different Snap Server models at different sites. The interval at which the data is replicated between Snap Servers can be configured to be as frequent as once every two minutes.
- Centralized Snap Server management. Companies with business-critical data in remote offices are not going to want administrative assistants managing individual Snap Servers, and IT staff has better things to do than log into and configure each Snap Server. Using Snap Server Manager, companies can create a central console that can manage geographically dispersed Snap Servers. Discovery of Snap Servers occurs automatically and companies can centrally manage snapshots, change settings on individual or multiple Snap Servers, and perform software updates centrally.
- Embedded backup software. Snap Server includes some interesting third party software applications like: BakBone Software’s NetVault Backup software, which is native with Snap Server’s GuardianOS Operating System. This gives companies looking to deploy Snap Servers at remote offices a natural starting point to standardize on a backup software package that scales to meet the backup requirements of many corporate environments.
- Embedded anti-virus software. All Snap Servers include CA eTrust Antivirus that comes with lifetime signature virus updates. Like its inclusion of backup software option, it gives companies a logical, cost-effective starting point to standardize on one antivirus software package, if they are using different packages or nothing now.
It is no secret that Snap Server is new to the Overland Storage suite of Backup and Data Protection solutions. The good news is that for a NAS product that is coming into the company primarily focused on file storage and data protection, it already is well-stocked with a plethora of features that will allow Overland to play a broader role in the distributed enterprise. Its inclusion of antivirus and backup software as part of its core software package, plus its replication and centralized management features, give Overland Storage a viable NAS offering Day 1. How Snap Server’s different technologies work and optimal ways to configure them are something we will take a deeper look at in upcoming blog entries.