DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide Now Available
DCIG is pleased to announce the availability of its DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 100 features on 22 different backup software solutions from 18 different backup software providers. This Buyer's Guide provides the critical information that all size organizations need when selecting backup software that is specifically tuned to protect virtualized environments.
Server virtualization is now an industry mainstay. While hosting multiple VMs on a single physical machine has been around since the days of the mainframe, the advent of hypervisors such as Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat Linux and VMware vSphere running on Intel-based hardware has brought server virtualization to the masses.
As this has occurred, the number of companies virtualizing their applications has exploded. In an October 2012 report, the analyst firm Gartner said that the total number of virtual OS instances already comprised over 70% of total OS instances and that this percentage would grow to over 80% by 2016.
Growth like this makes it no surprise that existing backup software vendors have had to adapt their backup software to protect these environments while it has created an opportunity for new vendors to emerge to capitalize on this trend.
In the two years that have passed since DCIG released its inaugural Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide, features that virtual server backup software must possess have changed quite a bit. Features such as support for tape libraries or VMware Consolidated Backup (VMware's first generation backup utility) are rarely if ever discussed any more when evaluating backup software products.
In their place a new set of criteria for evaluating virtual server backup software has emerged. These focus on how well the backup software integrates with the various VMware vSphere APIs for array integration and data protection, what backup and recovery tasks can it perform using vCenter Server, how well does it manage its available disk capacity and how well does it deduplicate data and where can deduplication be performed are now all topics that are front and center on organization's minds when evaluating backup software.
It is in this context that DCIG presents its 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide. As prior Buyer's Guides have done, it puts at the fingertips of organizations a comprehensive list of virtual server backup software solutions and what features they offer in the form of detailed, standardized data sheets that can assist them in this important buying decision.
The DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide accomplishes the following objectives:
CommVault Simpana 10 achieved the "Best-in-Class" ranking making this the second consecutive time that it has earned the top spot in the DCIG Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide. Making CommVault Simpana 10's strong showing so impressive was that in a highly competitive space, CommVault actually expanded its leadership both in terms of its breadth of software functionality and the support it offers for virtual server backup.
In doing its research for this Buyer's Guide, DCIG uncovered some interesting statistics about virtual server backup software solutions in general:
Server virtualization is now an industry mainstay. While hosting multiple VMs on a single physical machine has been around since the days of the mainframe, the advent of hypervisors such as Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat Linux and VMware vSphere running on Intel-based hardware has brought server virtualization to the masses.As this has occurred, the number of companies virtualizing their applications has exploded. In an October 2012 report, the analyst firm Gartner said that the total number of virtual OS instances already comprised over 70% of total OS instances and that this percentage would grow to over 80% by 2016.
Growth like this makes it no surprise that existing backup software vendors have had to adapt their backup software to protect these environments while it has created an opportunity for new vendors to emerge to capitalize on this trend.
In the two years that have passed since DCIG released its inaugural Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide, features that virtual server backup software must possess have changed quite a bit. Features such as support for tape libraries or VMware Consolidated Backup (VMware's first generation backup utility) are rarely if ever discussed any more when evaluating backup software products.
In their place a new set of criteria for evaluating virtual server backup software has emerged. These focus on how well the backup software integrates with the various VMware vSphere APIs for array integration and data protection, what backup and recovery tasks can it perform using vCenter Server, how well does it manage its available disk capacity and how well does it deduplicate data and where can deduplication be performed are now all topics that are front and center on organization's minds when evaluating backup software.
It is in this context that DCIG presents its 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide. As prior Buyer's Guides have done, it puts at the fingertips of organizations a comprehensive list of virtual server backup software solutions and what features they offer in the form of detailed, standardized data sheets that can assist them in this important buying decision.
The DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide accomplishes the following objectives:
- Provides an objective, third party evaluation of virtual server backup software that evaluates and scores their features from an end user's perspective.
- Scores and ranks the features of each virtual server backup software solution based upon the criteria that matter most to end users and then presents these results in an easy to understand tables that displays the products' scores and rankings so they can quickly ascertain which virtual server backup software solutions are the most appropriate for their needs.
- Provides a standardized data sheet for each of the 22 virtual backup software solutions from 18 different backup software providers so users may do quick comparisons of the features that are supported and not supported on each product.
- Provides insight into what VMware vSphere APIs each virtual server backup software solution supports.
- Gives any organization a solid foundation for getting competitive bids from different virtual server backup software providers that are based on "apples-to-apples" comparisons.
CommVault Simpana 10 achieved the "Best-in-Class" ranking making this the second consecutive time that it has earned the top spot in the DCIG Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer's Guide. Making CommVault Simpana 10's strong showing so impressive was that in a highly competitive space, CommVault actually expanded its leadership both in terms of its breadth of software functionality and the support it offers for virtual server backup.
In doing its research for this Buyer's Guide, DCIG uncovered some interesting statistics about virtual server backup software solutions in general:
- 95% do data compression
- 90% support VMware APIs for Data Protection
- 77% provide the option to do virtual-to-physical (V2P) restores
- 72% offer web-based consoles to manage their backup software
- 50% support creating and managing snapshots on storage arrays
- 50% make their virtual backup software available as a virtual backup appliance
- 36% make their virtual backup software available as a physical backup appliance
- Lists each virtual server backup software solution by vendor
- Lists out features of each virtual server backup software solution showing key features supported or not supported by each product
- Scores the features most relevant to end users
- Provides "at a glance" reference for companies evaluating specific virtual server backup software solutions or virtual server backup software features
- Provides a virtual server backup software solution ranking showing how vendor products compare against similar products on the market
- Offers recommendations as to which virtual server backup software solution rankings and products best align with their specific backup objectives
- Provides 22 virtual server backup software solution data sheets from 18 different vendors so organizations may compare solutions from one or many technology providers.
- Facilitates and accelerates the process of organizations obtaining bids on competitive products
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