DCIG is pleased to announce the availability of the 2016-17 Hybrid Cloud Backup Appliance Buyer’s Guide developed from the backup appliance body of research. Other Buyer’s Guides based on this body of research include the recent DCIG 2016-17 Deduplicating Backup Appliance Buyer’s Guide and the forthcoming 2016-17 Integrated Backup Appliance Buyer’s Guide.
As core business processes become digitized, the ability to keep services online and to rapidly recover from any service interruption becomes a critical need. Given the growth and maturation of cloud services, many organizations are exploring the advantages of storing application data with cloud providers and even recovering applications in the cloud.
Hybrid cloud backup appliances (HCBA) are deduplicating backup appliances that include pre-integrated data protection software and integration with at least one cloud-based storage provider. An HCBA’s ability to replicate backups to the cloud supports disaster recovery needs and provides essentially infinite storage capacity.
The DCIG 2016-17 Hybrid Cloud Backup Appliance Buyer’s Guide weights, scores and ranks more than 100 features of twenty-three (23) products from six (6) different providers. Using ranking categories of Recommended, Excellent and Good, this Buyer’s Guide offers much of the information an organization should need to make a highly informed decision as to which hybrid cloud backup appliance will suit their needs.
Each backup appliance included in the DCIG 2016-17 Hybrid Cloud Backup Appliance Buyer’s Guide meets the following criteria:
- Be available as a physical appliance
- May also ship as a virtual appliance
- Includes backup and recovery software that enables seamless integration into an existing infrastructure
- Stores backup data on the appliance via on premise DAS, NAS or SAN-attached storage
- Enables connectivity with at least one cloud-based storage provider for remote backups and long-term retention of backups in a secure/encrypted fashion
- Provides the ability to connect the cloud-based backup images on more than one geographically dispersed appliance
- Be formally announced or generally available for purchase on July 1, 2016
It is within this context that DCIG introduces the DCIG 2016-17 Hybrid Cloud Backup Appliance Buyer’s Guide. DCIG’s succinct analysis provides insight into the state of the hybrid cloud backup appliance marketplace. The Buyer’s Guide identifies the specific benefits organizations can expect to achieve using a hybrid cloud backup appliance, and key features organizations should be aware of as they evaluate products. It also provides brief observations about the distinctive features of each product. Ranking tables enable organizations to get an “at-a- glance” overview of the products; while DCIG’s standardized one-page data sheets facilitate side-by- side comparisons, assisting organizations to quickly create a short list of products that may meet their requirements.
End users registering to access this report via the DCIG Analysis Portal also gain access to the DCIG Interactive Buyer’s Guide (IBG). The IBG enables organizations take the next step in the product selection process by generating custom reports, including comprehensive side-by-side feature comparisons of the products in which the organization is most interested.
By using the DCIG Analysis Portal and applying the hybrid cloud backup appliance criteria to the backup appliance body of research, DCIG analysts were able to quickly create a short list of products that meet these requirements which was then, in turn, used to create this Buyer’s Guide Edition. DCIG plans to use this same process to create future Buyer’s Guide Editions that further examine the backup appliance marketplace.
Additional information about each buyer’s guide edition, including a download link, is available on the DCIG Buyer’s Guides page.