Backing up applications and data in general-purpose clouds present a new challenge that many backup solutions remain ill-equipped to handle. They often have not yet matured to capitalize on the specific administrative and data protection features that these clouds offer.
The “newer” the cloud, the more likely organizations will encounter this issue. If using Amazon Web Services (AWS), organizations may be less likely to encounter this challenge. Multiple backup products support backing up VMs in AWS and can leverage AWS’s available features.
The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) represents a “newer” cloud and currently lacks the same ecosystem of robust backup software offerings. It is this backup gap that the HYCU Backup as a Service (BaaS) for GCP continues to close.
A Brief Background of HYCU
Those unfamiliar with HYCU, it got started supporting and backing up applications and data on the Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV). In this respect, its level of integration with AHV currently exceeds that of competitors by a wide margin. Nutanix itself internally uses HYCU to protect its own applications and data running on AHV.
This tight integration with Nutanix AHV has prompted HYCU to closely follow Nutanix in whatever direction it goes. Recently, Nutanix began to work more closely with GCP to provide a hybrid cloud environment for its customer base. As it did so, HYCU positioned itself to protect applications and data hosted in the GCP the same way it did for Nutanix AHV.
HYCU’s Ease of Implementation in GCP
HYCU does NOT require organizations to install a virtual appliance or its backup software to backup applications in GCP. Rather, organizations may acquire HYCU through the Google Marketplace. This gives them immediate access to all its features and then they only pay monthly for the capacity they consume.
HYCU Further Closes the GCP Backup Gap
This week’s announcement illustrates HYCU’s ongoing commitment to providing a robust backup offering for GCP. HYCU’s latest release continues to incorporate its design principles of tight integration with GCP. It builds on these principles by providing improved levels of data protection at lower cost. It does so in the following ways:
- Integration with SAP HANA to create database consistent snapshots. Organizations that use SAP HANA are increasingly looking to host that application with general-purpose cloud providers such as GCP. As organizations do so, they need to back SAP HANA up. Using HYCU, organizations can now create database consistent backups of SAP HANA. HYCU continues to leverage GCP Snapshots to create backups and place them in GCP storage buckets to cost-effectively store them.
- Lowers backup target storage costs with Google Storage’s auto-tiering. HYCU already helps to control storage costs by storing snapshots on Google Cloud Storage (Google’s object store tier). It stores them there as opposed to Google Persistent Disk (Google’s block storage tier). However, Standard Tier Cloud Storage pricing costs only slightly less than the cost of storing snapshots on its Persistent Disk. This release of HYCU introduces auto-tiering. It automatically and non-disruptively moves aging snapshots off to GCP’s Nearline and Coldline tiers. Using this feature, organizations can reduce their ongoing monthly storage costs by up to 80 percent.
- Lower cost annual licensing option. Any organization that uses the cloud for any time quickly realizes the monthly costs of cloud services escalate rapidly. To address this concern, HYCU offers annual subscription rates that provide a discounted rate. Using this option, organizations who host applications in the cloud can use HYCU to protect them at a lower cost.
- HYCU BaaS for GCP: Better Cloud Backup, Lower Cloud Costs
As every organization discovers, general-purpose clouds such as GCP address many long-term concerns about data center availability, reliability and scalability. Simultaneously, these clouds can re-introduce challenges that solutions running on-premises have largely addressed, backup being one of them. Organizations looking to adopt emerging clouds such as GCP may find themselves particularly susceptible to these issues.
HYCU Backup as a Service (BaaS) for GCP largely addresses these backup concerns. It does more than provide organizations with a simple and cost-effective means to deploy, implement and manage backups in GCP. Its latest release illustrates how it intends to deliver on the ideals of cloud solutions going forward. It optimizes its backup software features even as it gives organizations new ways to lower their ongoing cloud costs.