Arcserve prioritizes cloud choice with UDP platform update
Data backup specialist Arcserve is expanding the data resilience capabilities of its flagship platform with Azure support, multi-replication and malware detection from Microsoft.
The latest version of Arcserve's Unified Data Protection platform offers enterprise-grade backup features targeting midmarket customers.
Arcserve Unified Data Protection 10 (UDP 10), now generally available, offers new capabilities that include storing multiple recovery points both on premises and in hyperscaler clouds, integration with Windows Defender for malware detection, and support for Microsoft Azure as a backup target.
The midmarket target for Arcserve might not be up to speed on the latest trends in cyber protection against malware, according to Marc Staimer, president and founder of Dragon Slayer Consulting.
Arcserve's offerings can be a starting point for organizations, but cyberattacks that delay ransomware detonations might require more.
"In data protection, it's all about cyber resilience and cyber protection," Staimer said. "It's good enough for a lot of people in the market. [Those customers] don't understand the cybersecurity issues."
Customer choice
Arcserve UDP 10 prioritizes customer choice in cloud, deployment and payment models, according to Chris Babel, CEO of Arcserve.
This flexibility came at the request and suggestion of Arcserve's customers in more than 100 countries worldwide, Babel said. Most have adopted a hybrid cloud infrastructure, using a combination of local hardware for immediate recoveries and cloud for a second storage location.
"Anything you can do in the cloud, you can do faster on prem," Babel said. "There's very much a hybrid philosophy [from customers]."
To further support customer flexibility, the UDP 10 platform is sold as licensed software as part of an Arcserve backup hardware appliance, according to Babel. And now, for the first time, it's also offered as a monthly subscription service.
A new feature to support hybrid infrastructure is Ad-Hoc Virtual Standby to Cloud, which spins up virtual machines in other clouds without customers having to pre-purchase their services. Cloud providers for this ad-hoc service include AWS, Google Cloud, Wasabi and now Microsoft Azure, a new cloud addition for UDP 10.
Customers with multiple clouds or data centers can also use the One-to-Many Replication feature, new to UDP, which replicates data to multiple backup targets at the same.
A standby server for recovery isn't a new concept, but smaller organizations might not have the hardware to support one on premises or the funds to keep one ready in the cloud, according to Jerome Wendt, founder and CEO of Data Center Intelligence Group.
"That's a great feature as long as you have another site on hand, but how many do you really have?" Wendt said.
This midmarket IT customer will also likely benefit from UDP 10's new Assured Security feature, which uses Microsoft Defender for malware scanning at the time of backup or during the restoration process.
Security quality
Backup vendors such as Rubrik and Cohesity have been moving their products closer to cybersecurity offerings, Wendt said, even if classical IT security by securing permissions or infrastructure access isn't their forte.
But, by offloading the need to update virus or malware definitions and technologies to Microsoft, Arcserve can remain focused on developing backup services, he said.
"Cybersecurity has not been their core competency historically," Wendt said. "This gives Arcserve a standard and keeps them out of the cybersecurity business."
Arcserve will still likely encounter challenges as it continues to refine the cyber-recovery capabilities of its platform, Staimer said. Advanced malware detection services slow down recovery processes, meaning recovery will have caveats with either speed or quality of the security.
"Cyber defense is an oxymoron when it comes to instant recovery," Staimer said. "If you're going to be really effective at cyber defense, you can't have instant recovery."
Data backup services among SMB customers have also become competitive on pricing, he said, which is likely to styme new technology developments or additional features.
"The problem Arcserve finds is it's a race to the bottom in terms of cost," Staimer said.
Tim McCarthy is a news writer for TechTarget Editorial covering cloud and data storage.
