Zetta Announces Appliance-Less Online Backup and Recovery Service

Online backup and disaster recovery solutions provider Zetta unveiled the next generation of its flagship cloud service, DataProtect 3.0. The platform brings cloud data protection to small to midsize businesses (SMBs) in a single managed service that requires no appliances.

DataProtect 3.0 is designed to simplify and help automate backups of IT assets, and enables businesses to access and recover files, directories or entire file systems from anywhere via the Internet. Advanced security, high redundancy and a high-performance architecture are among the features Zetta is highlighting in the latest edition of the platform.

“Fast, uninterrupted access to data is increasingly important to the livelihood of businesses today. When a system failure occurs, having to wait for data access and recovery for any period of time is just painful,” said James Bagley, senior analyst with storage industry research firm Storage Strategies Now. “Zetta’s cloud-based backup and disaster recovery solution is uniquely based on an extremely efficient protocol that enables distinct throughput advantages, and as a result, users have immediate access to their data whenever there may be a problem. And with enterprise-grade features in a service that is user-friendly, instantly scalable and affordable, Zetta’s solution is especially attractive to small and medium businesses.”

New features include expanded data protection to include SQL, Windows system state and Microsoft Exchange, in addition to unstructured data (files), VM Ware and data restore to dissimilar hardware from the cloud. The expanded platform also extends support to include Mac computers in addition to Windows and Linux. The company has also increased data transfer speeds with local metadata cache, deduplication and advanced network data compression.

“Backups for us involved a lot of variables, such as tape rotations, hardware issues, complex software and management complexity challenges as our data requirements continued to grow,” said Larry Steinke, technology director for Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif. “Zetta’s online backup and recovery solution is simple and easy, and automates the whole process for us. It allows me to have peace of mind knowing our backups are running seamlessly, and if needed, we can recover our data instantly with no business disruption.”

A recent survey produced by online backup specialist Mozy and market research firm Compass Partners found that 30 percent of companies surveyed suffered a hard drive crash in the past year. In 70 percent of those cases, data was not fully recovered.

In addition, one-third of companies let employees make their own decisions about how to back up company and client data on their devices, and most companies polled said they do not have backup or data recovery plans that meet modern standards for data protection, the Compass Partners study found. Forty-one percent of small businesses readily store and back up company data on portable USB devices — which may be used by family members, or get lost or even stolen.