ESG Lab Review. The Challenges

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1 ESG Lab Review Data Protection, Recovery and Business Continuity with SIRIS 2 from Datto Date: November 2014 Author: Vinny Choinski, Senior Lab Analyst and Brian Garrett, VP ESG Lab Abstract: This ESG Lab review documents hands- on testing of the SIRIS 2 solution from Datto, with a focus on assured protection and flexible architecture. The Challenges Organisations of all sizes continue to struggle with data protection, in part due to the inadequacy of legacy backup tools and in part due to the constantly evolving and growing production resources that demand better protection and more agile restores. Because of this, ESG has seen surveyed organisations cite improving data backup and recovery as a top IT priority year after year. In fact, improving backup has been the top priority for midsized organisations for the past three years. 1 Figure 1. Top Ten IT Priorities for Midmarket Organisations Top 10 most important IT priori4es for midmarket organisa4ons (100 to 999 employees) over the next 12 months. (Percent of respondents, N=213, ten responses accepted) Improve data backup and recovery 38% Increase use of server virtualisa\on 34% Informa\on security ini\a\ves 31% Desktop virtualisa\on Manage data growth 28% 27% Data center consolida\on Bring- your- own- device (BYOD) policy Business con\nuity/disaster recovery programs Major applica\on deployments or upgrades Improve collabora\on capabili\es 23% 23% 22% 21% 21% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, Also notable is that while the tactical goal of improving backup and recovery tops the list, the more strategic goal of business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) also regularly makes the top ten priorities. This is due in part to the portability of virtual servers along with access to cloud- based resources, which offer customers an economically feasible way to maintain a failover location. Putting those two trends together with the right protection and recovery solution gives midsized organisations a level of efficient agility to which they could not have aspired five years ago. 1 Source: ESG Research Report, 2014 IT Spending Intentions Survey, February The goal of ESG Lab reports is to educate IT professionals about data center technology products for companies of all types and sizes. ESG Lab reports are not meant to replace the evaluation process that should be conducted before making purchasing decisions, but rather to provide insight into these emerging technologies. Our objective is to go over some of the more valuable feature/functions of products, show how they can be used to solve real customer problems and identify any areas needing improvement. ESG Lab s expert third- party perspective is based on our own hands- on testing as well as on interviews with customers who use these products in production environments. This ESG Lab report was sponsored by Datto.

2 2 The Solution: SIRIS 2 from Datto Datto SIRIS 2 is an image- based data protection, recovery and business continuity solution, which is available in multiple configurations that are designed to meet the protection needs of differently sized businesses. The solution is only sold by certified Datto channel partners and can be deployed as a physical or virtual appliance. It scales from local protection to hybrid cloud protection and is supported by a team dedicated to customer satisfaction. Configurations include: SIRIS 2 Business: Designed for businesses that need 500GB to 2TB of protection capacity and local virtualisation functionality. SIRIS 2 Professional: Designed for businesses that need 1TB to 5TB of protection capacity and local virtualisation functionality. SIRIS 2 Enterprise: Designed for businesses that need 5TB to 36TB of protection capacity and simultaneous virtualisation and replication. Virtual SIRIS: A virtual appliance with protection capacity options that range from 1TB to 50TB. Figure 2. SIRIS 2 Solution Overview SIRIS 2 technology leverages image- based snapshots to protect a customer s servers, desktops, and applications. Each time a backup occurs, the data is saved in a universal virtual file format (VMDK). Each backup becomes a point- in- time, fully bootable virtual machine image with no dependency on previous snapshots. This schema is something Datto has branded as its Inverse Chain Technology. It makes managing retention policies and data seeding extremely easy because it eliminates multi- file backup/recovery image dependencies. Administrators simply delete obsolete recovery images and reclaim the space to adjust retention policies or easily ingest data from a physically transported seeding device without compromising recoverability. Datto also incorporates instant virtualisation functionality into the SIRIS 2 appliances. This feature enables backups to be virtualised either locally on the appliance or remotely in Datto s secure cloud, in about the time it takes to boot a VM. The intuitive, web- based management interface allows for the configuration of system resources such as CPU and memory during the virtualisation process. Network resources can also be configured dynamically, allowing for changes to be made without restarting the virtual machine. Even when the solution is being used to host instantly virtualised machines for business continuity purposes, it continues to provide on- going protection for production servers, workstations, and applications.

3 3 Datto takes a hybrid cloud approach to enabling highly redundant business continuity and to extending data protection beyond the walls of the local data center. This approach allows data that has already been backed up locally to a SIRIS 2 appliance to be automatically replicated offsite to Datto s secure cloud infrastructure. The Datto cloud is a resilient local solution with highly redundant power, cooling, and networking implemented on an enterprise- class infrastructure with robust physical security components and procedures designed to augment the security features built into the Datto software. 2 The redundant cloud data centers are managed by the Datto support team; the secondary location was built to match the design elements of the Datto- owned primary data center. To provide visibility into backup history, Datto created Backup Insights, a proprietary technology that makes it easy to identify file and application changes between backup points. With Backup Insights, a user can quickly recall any two backups in an easy- to- read, file- tree format, select the desired data, and perform the restore directly from the interface. Screenshot Backup Verification provides backup validation. This automated Datto technology allows virtual machines to be temporarily spun up from each backup image. Once the image is booted, a screenshot of the machine login screen is taken. An alert containing the screenshot image can then be sent to the service provider or client as validation of a successful backup. ESG Lab Tested ESG Lab performed hands- on testing of the SIRIS 2 solution at Datto s corporate facility in Norwalk, Connecticut. Testing was focused on assured data protection and the flexible architecture SIRIS 2 provides for easy deployment and scalability. Assured Protection ESG Lab began testing by exploring the SIRIS 2 management interface. The Lab navigated through each screen of a previously configured SIRIS 2 environment to get a feel for the interface layout. The Cloud Synchronisation screen in Figure 3 provides a summary of local and cloud storage utilisation. Figure 3. SIRIS 2 Appliance User Interface 2 Datto has five data centers worldwide: two in the US, one in Canada, one in the UK and one in Australia.

4 4 The left side of Figure 3 displays storage information for the SIRIS 2 appliance, including an at- a- glance summary for capacity planning. The dark shaded area displays the free space available for continued data protection. The other colored wedges show the utilised local capacity, color coded for each server or workstation being protected. The right side of Figure 3 shows cloud capacity utilisation for each of the protected hosts that have been replicated or synchronised offsite to the Datto cloud. The bottom of the figure shows the status and bandwidth utilisation for the latest replication jobs. Figure 3 also provides a logical overview of the configuration ESG Lab used for most of its validation testing: a local SIRIS 2 appliance with cloud synchronisation. It should be noted that Datto provides the ability to seed cloud data with a removable device for both initial implementation and to augment ongoing synchronisation in locations where WAN bandwidth is limited. Next, ESG Lab downloaded and deployed the SIRIS 2 backup agent on a test Windows server. We walked through the configuration process, which included all the standard settings that you would expect in a typical data protection solution: scheduling, retention, synchronisation, and the selection of protection and target appliances. Also included, as shown in Figure 4, was the ability to select Screenshot Backup Verification for specific jobs. The red callout box on the left side of the figure with the camera icon next to the time/date stamp shows that the backup has been automatically validated. Clicking on the icon displays the login screenshot. Figure 4. Screenshot Backup Verification Lastly, the Lab used the SIRIS 2 user interface to conduct a bare metal restore (BMR) of a Windows server from a backup image to new physical server hardware. First, the Lab selected the BMR recovery option, picked the desired recovery point, and clicked on the Start USB Imaging tab. Once the USB device was connected to the SIRIS 2 appliance, it was formatted with the BMR image, then it was removed from the appliance and inserted into the new server hardware targeted for recovery. With the BMR USB device inserted into a USB port on the server and the Boot from USB option selected at the bios level, the server was powered on. The server booted to the first screen of the Datto BMR wizard as shown in Figure 5. The wizard directed the Lab through the configuration process, allowing setup adjustments to be made along the way. It should be noted that Datto continually updates the BMR image with the latest set of common device drivers to help make recovery to dissimilar hardware as seamless as possible.

5 5 Once the BMR wizard steps were completed, a full transfer of the complete backup image was automatically initiated between the new hardware and the SIRIS 2 appliance. After the transfer was complete, the recovered server was ready for use. Figure 5. Bare Metal Restore Why This Matters It s not surprising that ESG research identified improving backup and recovery as a top priority for midsized organisations in each of the past three years. Why? Because when things go wrong, these organisations depend on their data protection solutions to get their businesses back up and running. 3 So, what are these organisations looking for in data protection? They re looking for solutions that are easy to understand and use, with the ability to verify the integrity of backups. These attributes become especially important as environments become more and more virtualised. 4 ESG Lab confirmed that, far beyond the scope of simple data recovery, SIRIS 2 from Datto was extremely easy to use and understand. The solution takes a straightforward approach to configuring and managing backup and recovery and, because of its design, enables each backup to be fully validated by automatically booting a virtual machine directly from the backup image. It also integrates wizard- driven bare metal restore (BMR) to automate the disaster recovery process, making it more than just a data protection solution. 3 Source: ESG Research Report, 2014 IT Spending Intentions Survey, February Source: ESG Research Report, Trends for Protection Highly Virtualised and Private Cloud Environments, June 2013.

6 6 Flexible Architecture To validate the flexibility of the SIRIS 2 architecture, ESG Lab asked the Datto team to provide a solution overview covering deployment and configuration options. The Lab reviewed model specifications (e.g., Business, Professional, Enterprise, and Virtual) offered in the SIRIS 2 family designed to meet the protection requirements of differently sized businesses. ESG Lab explored getting started with a local appliance and the ability to extend local protection offsite using Datto s secure cloud infrastructure. Key components of the SIRIS 2 solution are highlighted in Figure 6. The left side of the figure shows virtualised Windows servers in the production environment that are being protected by the appliance. It should be noted that SIRIS 2 supports both physical and virtual servers in its protection schema. Adding a server to the protection schema requires the installation of a Datto protection agent. The middle of Figure 6 shows the local SIRIS 2 appliance; once the agents have been installed, image- based snapshots can be sent to the appliance over the LAN for local protection. Figure 6. Local and Remote Virtualisation Independent backup schedules with different attributes can be created for each server. Each backup image is saved as a bootable VMDK file. The middle of Figure 6 shows a sequence of backup images, represented by small server icons, stored on the SIRIS 2 appliance. The images with the camera icons indicate backups that have been validated with Screenshot Backup Verification. Each image can be used for simple file- level restores conducted directly from the appliance user interface. The larger server icon in the middle of the figure represents the local virtualisation option available with SIRIS 2. With local virtualisation, the VMDK backup image can be used to boot a server on the appliance for business continuity, test and development, analytics, or advanced recovery options. Datto leverages VirtualBox from Oracle as the hypervisor for virtualisation in its SIRIS 2 operating system deployment. It should be noted that the virtualisation process does not impact ongoing and scheduled data protection operations. ESG Lab leveraged a SIRIS 2 virtualised server and Kroll Ontrack to conduct advanced recovery operations. The Lab walked through object- level recoveries of individual Microsoft Exchange messages, SQL database tables, and SharePoint managed files. The right side of Figure 6 depicts the ability of the SIRIS 2 solution to extend protection offsite to the secure Datto cloud. ESG Lab configured remote synchronisation for a number of backup images between the local appliance and the cloud. To improve recoverability, the Lab selected only images with Screenshot Backup Verification to be synchronised to the cloud. As shown on the far right side of Figure 6, ESG Lab also initiated and validated remote virtualisation, a process that can be used in the event of a local site disaster.

7 7 Next, as shown in Figure 7, ESG Lab leveraged the user interface to compare two different point- in- time backup images from the same server. This feature, called Backup Insights, enables administrators or users to quickly identify changes between backup points by presenting the data in an easy- to- read, file- tree format. Administrators can easily use Backup Insights to service end- user requests for specific file restores. Figure 7. Backup Insights The left side of Figure 7 shows file system details for the protected server at 12:03 AM on November 24 th, while the right side shows the same file system at 10:57 AM November 24 th. The red callout boxes highlight easily identifiable changes in the system between the two backups. The display is color coded: the yellow pencil icon means the file has been modified between backups; the green plus sign means the file has been added to the latest version; and the red X means the file has been deleted. A grey file icon tells the user that the file did not yet exist at this point in time, and a black file icon means nothing has changed between versions. Finally, the Lab explored the features and functions available in the Datto partner portal user interface. The portal is a comprehensive tool that enables multiple Datto deployments to be viewed from a single interface. Figure 8 shows the device- level view of the environment. The left side of this view shows the appliance details for the device highlighted, including information such as location, IP address, model, and more.

8 8 The right side of the screen allows the user to drill down on protected server details for each Datto agent. It provides an easy- to- read view of the status of each backup, including Screenshot Backup Verification. The interface allows the partner to not only monitor the environment, but also manage each device. Other views enable quick access to additional resources such as generating customer invoices, or accessing Datto support services and marketing material. Figure 8. Partner Portal User Interface Why This Matters Organisations are constantly looking for ways to decrease costs and improve efficiency. In fact, ESG research found that for 2014, return on investment was the most- cited important consideration for justifying IT investments to business management teams. 5 Constantly evolving and growing production resources demand that today s data protection solutions be flexible, scalable, and even able to address multiple business requirements in a single solution. ESG Lab validated that SIRIS 2 is an extremely flexible and scalable solution. It starts by offering multiple deployment options based on current business protection requirements. As the protected environment grows, devices are easily upgraded. Small deployments can be managed via the appliance GUI, while larger configurations can be rolled up into the consolidated, feature- rich partner portal interface. It is a multi- purpose solution that provides local and remote data protection, business continuity, and disaster recovery. 5 Source: ESG Research Report, 2014 IT Spending Intentions Survey, February 2014.

9 9 The Bigger Truth Datto SIRIS 2 is an image- based data protection, recovery and business continuity solution that scales from local to hybrid cloud protection. The solution, sold only by certified Datto channel partners, can be deployed locally as a physical or virtual appliance. For offsite protection, it can be easily extended to Datto s secure cloud infrastructure. ESG Lab started testing of SIRIS 2 by visiting the Datto corporate facility in Norwalk, Connecticut and working with the product development and support teams. We were scheduled for an early morning start and arrived onsite early. As we waited in the lobby for our hosts to arrive, it became evident that Datto as an organisation was clearly focused on customer satisfaction. Each Datto employee that passed us in the lobby on their way to start the work day stopped to make sure we had been helped and to offer any assistance we might need. This customer support theme carried throughout the day of testing. ESG Lab conducted its testing of SIRIS 2 focused on the overall flexibility the solution provides for deployment and administration as well as its ability to provide a business with the peace of mind that its data is recoverable and usable. Unlike many traditional data protection solutions that started out as dump and restore or file- level recovery utilities, Datto s roots are based on the ability to quickly recover a server and application, whether virtual or physical, as a bootable virtual machine. The Lab tested file- level restore, and used Kroll Ontrack in conjunction with SIRIS 2 to perform Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint, and Exchange object- level restores. We validated BMR, local/remote virtualisation, and Screenshot Backup Verification, and the Lab was very impressed with its ability to be leveraged as both a data protection and business continuity solution. SIRIS 2 is a channel- only solution that enables Datto business partners to deliver data protection, business continuity, and disaster recovery services to their customers in a consolidated, single solution. With SIRIS 2, Datto provides innovation with components such as Inverse Chain Technology, Backup Insights, and Screenshot Backup Verification while partnering with companies like Kroll for object- level restore when mature technology already exists. ESG believes that Datto has a strong offering in its SIRIS 2 family of products, and that if it continues to execute, remains dedicated to customer satisfaction, and expands platform support beyond Windows, it has a bright future. All trademark names are property of their respective companies. Information contained in this publication has been obtained by sources The Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) considers to be reliable but is not warranted by ESG. This publication may contain opinions of ESG, which are subject to change from time to time. This publication is copyrighted by The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc. Any reproduction or redistribution of this publication, in whole or in part, whether in hard- copy format, electronically, or otherwise to persons not authorized to receive it, without the express consent of The Enterprise Strategy Group, Inc., is in violation of U.S. copyright law and will be subject to an action for civil damages and, if applicable, criminal prosecution. Should you have any questions, please contact ESG Client Relations at