The Criteria to Select the Right Virtual Server Backup Software Solution for Small and Midsize Enterprises

The Criteria to Select the Right Virtual Server Backup Software Solution for Small and Midsize Enterprises By Jerome M Wendt DCIG, LLC 7511 Madison Street Omaha NE 68127 402.884.9594

Table of Contents 1 Executive Summary 2 A Shake-up in Virtual Server Data Protection 2 Persistent Backup Software Intangibles 2 Backup 3 Deduplication 3 Restore 3 Backup Software Selection: Beware Feature (and Price) Overkill 4 The New Virtual Server Backup Software Selection Criteria 4 Available as an Appliance 4 Comprehensive VMware vsphere Support 4 Full Featured Backup Technology 5 Robust Management Functionality 5 Robust Replication 4 VADP CBT Support Offered by Leading Virtual Server Backup Software Solutions 5 Eversync Emerges as a Leading Virtual Server Backup Software Solution 5 Virtual Server Backup Sof tware Scores and Rankings 6 Eversync: The Right Virtual Server Backup Software Solution for SMEs Appendix A-1 HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISON OF FEATURES OF LEADING BACKUP SOFTWARE PRODUCTS B-1 EVERSYNC 5.0 PRODUCT OVERVIEW C-1 DCIG Disclosures 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. i

Executive Summary Selecting the right backup software solution to protect one s IT environment used to be much easier. Most organizations would use a recognized backup software product to protect their physical environment and one of the new backup software solutions to protect their emerging but smaller virtualized environment. The number of applications now virtualized is prompting many organizations to revisit this approach. As virtualization continues to grow in production, organizations are less willing to risk having their production data stored on two or more backup software products. However they are also hesitant to consolidate on a single backup software solution to protect both their physical and virtual environments until they are confident such a solution exists. Small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) are particularly challenged on this front. While many already have large portions of their IT environments virtualized, they are also likely to have a number of applications that continue to reside on physical machines and will remain there for years to come. Further complicating their decision, the backup software products that offer both virtual and physical protection are typically enterprise in nature offering more feature functionality than they need and carrying price tags to match. SMEs need a virtual server backup product that is right-sized for them. It needs to provide them with a comprehensive set of data protection features that they need for their virtualized environments minus all of the bells and whistles (and costs) associated with enterprise-level backup software. However it also needs to offer the right levels of data protection for their physical environments which they will likely have to manage for years to come. Just as important, their backup software needs to be simple to install and manage while laying a foundation for them to take full advantage of the benefits that virtualization has to offer. SMEs want and need the simple, fast recoveries of virtual machines (VMs) for quick application recoveries. They also want to put in motion disaster recovery initiatives that virtualization makes quite easy to implement. All they need is backup software that offers this mix of features without breaking their budget. Eversync exemplifies what this next generation of backup software should deliver. It offers SMEs one of the most robust backup software solutions available for virtual server platforms (Microsoft, Linux and VMware), while also offering the features that SMEs need to protect their applications that will continue to reside on physical machines. By making its solution available as both a physical and virtual appliance and including features such as deduplication and replication, SMEs can have a high degree of confidence that Eversync will protect their entire environment without breaking their budget. 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. 1

A Shake-up in Virtual Server Data Protection As recently as a few years ago virtual server backup software was a two horse race between Vizioncore vranger (now part of Dell) and Veeam Backup and Replication. Fast forward to today and those two products are not even in the Top 10 of solutions that are best suited to protect virtualized environments. 1 New virtual server backup software solutions have emerged and existing backup software solutions have evolved to offer a greater breadth of features and functions to protect virtualized environments. This has resulted in organizations having literally dozens of virtual server backup software solutions both old and new from which to choose. However the decision as to which virtual server backup software to use has grown more complicated in recent years. First generation products generally protected a specific hypervisor (VMware ESX) and a couple of guest operating systems (generally Linux and Windows) that were initially used by organizations to virtualize their test and development applications. These environments placed minimal demands on the first generation of virtual server backup software. Since then server virtualization has evolved and matured. This brought with it a new set of expectations that has shaken up virtual server data protection. Companies now want backup software to offer more than what first generation virtual server backup software provides. They now expect it to include protection for: Multiple hypervisors. The introduction of Live Migration into Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 removed one of the main objections that many organizations had to using Microsoft Hyper-V. As a result, more organizations are complementing their VMware vsphere deployments with Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 or even using it in lieu of VMware vsphere. Even Red Hat Linux s Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor is showing up in more places as a cost affordable alternative to both Microsoft and VMware. As this occurs, organizations expect their backup software to protect their environment regardless of which hypervisor(s) they use. Multiple guest operating systems. Many organizations have at least one flavor of UNIX (AIX or Solaris) and possibly some MAC and Novell in addition to Linux and Windows. As organizations virtualize these various operating systems they again need backup software to protect them. Physical environments. Organizations find that they can often easily virtualize as many as 80% of their applications. However the remaining 20% that remain physical tend to be among the more performance intensive and viewed as mission critical. First generation virtual server backup software was simply not equipped to protect these physical environments nor deliver the higher levels of application integration needed to support them. Further adding to the shake-up in virtual server data protection, companies continue to look to cut costs and simplify their IT environments. Using separate backup software products to protect their physical and virtual environments initially made sense. Now as companies look to backup software to protect both their physical and virtual environments, moving to a single solution that delivers lower costs and reduced complexity becomes a higher priority. Persistent Backup Software Intangibles As companies in general and small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) in particular look to use a single backup software solution, backup software must deliver a certain set of intangible features to efficiently and effectively backup and recover their environment. These intangibles comprise a set of features that backup software must continue to deliver as well as bring forward new features that are needed to appropriately protect virtualized environments. Backup software has three (3) general categories of intangibles. Backup Companies naturally expect backup software to protect their environment. But there is a big difference between doing backup and doing backups in an efficient and effective manner, especially in the context of protecting both physical and virtual machines. 1. Based upon the published results of the DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer s Guide. 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. 2

Protecting physical machines presents its own set of challenges. For instance, the backup software often still needs backup agents to protect physical machines, which first generation virtual server backup software generally does not provide. Protecting virtual machines (VMs) is no cakewalk either. Backup software needs to offer more advanced backup options to protect multiple VMs residing on the same physical server at the same time. It needs to minimize the impact to the server and the VMs hosted on it. However as physical servers host ever more VMs, the backup software needs the specific integration with the hypervisor operating system so it can non-disruptively scale to protect the growing virtualized environment. On a broader scale when backing up either physical or virtual machines, other factors come into play. For instance, it merits examining if the backup software backs itself up to facilitate fast restores in case it fails. SMEs should also examine how the backup software manages physical resources (memory, CPU, I/O and storage) as backup software can vary widely in its usage of resources. The more efficiently and effectively it uses these resources, the less the backup software will cost initially and over time. Deduplication A major area of focus when protecting either physical or virtual environments is how well the backup software deduplicates backup data. Due to the growing number of VMs in most environments and the large amount of duplicate data they create, deduplication is almost a must-have which is why most backup software in some way supports deduplication. However what is not visible next to any backup software s deduplication check mark is how efficiently it deduplicates the data. The differences in how backup software deduplicates data become particularly acute in solutions targeted at SMEs. They may deduplicate data at different points and times in the backup process with each using different algorithms to do so. These differences result in some solutions being as much as twice as efficient in deduplicating backup data as others. Restore Restore has always been important but it garners added scrutiny in virtualized environments in large part because virtualization makes it both easier and more desirable to Backup Software Selection: Beware Feature (and Price) Overkill A challenge that many small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) face is choosing a virtual server backup solution that has the right set of features at the right price for them. While a number of enterprise backup software products provide options to address almost any backup scenario imaginable, they tend to offer features that SMEs likely may never use. Further, all of this feature functionality comes with a price tag to match. Specific features they may natively offer but which may not be needed by SMEs include: Creating and managing snapshots on storage arrays Optional methods for deduplicating data in different locations Extensive tape library support This additional feature functionality often results in higher price tags, increased complexity and more management overhead. While these features certainly have their place, they may introduce feature and price overkill for the average SME. restore VMs for a variety of purposes. As such, it behooves SMEs to examine how well the backup software performs restore and what restore options it provides. Minimally it must provide for meeting the existing restore use cases. Every backup administrator has to do a granular restore of an email, a file or an application such as a Microsoft SQL Server or SharePoint on a fairly regular basis. On a less frequent basis, minor disasters also occur such as a physical machine failing. In virtualized environments this type of event becomes more impactful due to the number of VMs that a single server may host. In this case, the backup software will ideally offer an option to restore all VMs hosted by that server at the same time to another physical machine. The backup software should also provide the new found flexibility that virtualization inherently offers to recover VMs for purposes other than restore or disaster recovery. To take advantage of these new use cases, it is beneficial if the backup administrator can assign a different name to the recovered VM as it may be restored for testing or development purposes even while the primary VM is still in production. There may also be instances where a VM has grown to the point that it needs its own dedicated physical server or companies want to recover a physical application to a VM. Having the flexibility to recover a VM to a physical server or a physical application to a VM are also desirable as restore options. 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. 3

The New Virtual Server Backup Software Selection Criteria Identifying a virtual server backup software solution that delivers on these intangibles as well as the new features that an SME needs to backup and recover its virtualized environment is easier said than done. The DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer s Guide identified and evaluated over 20 virtual server backup solutions with more than 150 different features. The trick for SMEs is to identify which of these 150 features match their specific needs and then select a backup software solution that delivers on them. The features that SMEs specifically need to verify that the backup software offers include: Available as an Appliance. Making the backup software available as an appliance (physical or virtual) may sound almost tangential to the entire topic of SME selecting the right backup software for its environment. But as a former system administrator who has worked for both small and large enterprises, I often first spent weeks if not months sizing and acquiring the right hardware (servers, operating systems, networking and storage) to host the backup software. Then once the hardware was acquired, I spent additional time installing and configuring the hardware and backup software. time deploy other hypervisors to protect applications in testing and development, SMEs tend to give vsphere the initial nod for hosting their production applications since it is the most proven and well-known hypervisor. A specific point of vsphere integration that organizations should look for in backup software is its support for the VMware APIs for Data Protection (VADP) and its Changed Block Tracking (CBT) option. Once CBT is turned on, vsphere tracks changes on a VM disk with minimal performance impact to the VM. Then when a backup occurs, the backup software communicates with vsphere to get a snapshot of what blocks of data have changed since the previous backup. Since vsphere has a record of these changes, the time it takes to backup an individual VM is reduced to seconds. Further, it minimizes the need to put a backup agent on each VM which simplifies backup administration. VADP CBT Support Offered by Leading Virtual Server Backup Software Solutions BACKUP TECHNOLOGY VADP CBT Application Differential Backups Incremental Backups Operating System Dell Quest Software vranger 6.0 Eversync 5 PHD Virtual v6.2 Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 Having the backup software available as a physical or virtual appliance reduces the time required to put the backup software into production to as short as an hour or less. A physical appliance only needs to be powered up and connected to the network. Installing a virtual appliance only requires that its Open Virtualization Format (OVF) file or package be installed on an existing hypervisor. Comprehensive VMware vsphere Support. Say all you want about putting in place a single backup software solution but the need for it to provide comprehensive support for VMware vsphere remains a prerequisite. Most SMEs will use VMware in some capacity and many will initially start out with it. While they may over VADP Snapshot Location Partial or Full Restore ESX Hypervisor Full Featured Backup Technology. SMEs looking to protect their entire environment (virtual or physical) using a single backup software product need one that offers the right set of features to address their specific needs. This is where products that started out protecting physical environments but have evolved to also protect virtual environments actually have an edge. Granted, they need to offer support for other hypervisors such as Microsoft Hyper-V and Red Hat Linux that are starting to find their way into SME 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. 4

environments. But these solutions also are more likely to offer support for physical and/or guest operating systems such as Mac OSX, Novell, and Sun Solaris in addition to the standard Linux and Windows operating systems that nearly every provider supports. Robust Management Functionality. SMEs may only have a few staff to manage their entire IT infrastructure. In their roles they are usually forced to remain IT generalists who rarely if ever have time to become product specialists. As such they need a solution that requires no training, and is self-managing once it is set up and deployed with an interface that is easy to access and features that are easy to use. For instance, every organization faces the ongoing task of protecting new virtual machines (VMs) as they are created. As part of simplifying the protection of these VMs, backup software should automate the ongoing detection and configuration of VMs for backup. This ensures the entire virtualized environment remains fully protected over time. Application recoveries go hand-in-hand with managing backups in virtualized environments. One of the more pleasant aspects of virtualization is the ease in which SMEs can recover applications. This ease of recovery puts a heightened focus on having application consistent backups so SMEs may restore them in support of initiatives such as disaster recovery or testing product fixes or upgrades before they are applied on production VMs. Robust Replication. Fast VM restores are only part of what SMEs expect a new backup software solution to deliver. Virtualization also makes it much easier to replicate and recover data offsite. This aspect of virtualization opens the door for SMEs to check off a To-do that has been on their wish list for many years: a viable disaster recovery plan. However this is only possible if the backup software provides a viable replication solution. On the surface, different backup software solutions may sound alike in terms of their ability to copy or replicate backup jobs offsite. The differences emerge in how well they execute on that process. Simply copying all of the data in a single backup job to another site may work but will not meet enterprise-class disaster recovery needs. The backup solution should enable organizations to schedule multiple full, incremental and differential backup jobs for replication in order to meet disaster recovery requirements. Other features are also needed to ensure that the replication job is done efficiently and completed in a timely manner. The backup software needs to provide replication that monitors available WAN bandwidth and adjusts the flow of data being replicated. Further, to minimize both the amount of data being replicated and how much WAN bandwidth it consumes, it should only do byte-level data replication, replicating only data that has changed since the completion of the previous replication job. Eversync Emerges as a Leading Virtual Server Backup Software Solution DCIG recently completed a comprehensive, competitive analysis of the leading virtual server backup software solutions. This analysis took into account all of the various features that virtual backup software offers which DCIG weighted and scored so the individual backup software products could be scored and ranked against one another. The results of these findings were then published in the DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer s Guide. As DCIG looked across the landscape of available virtual server backup products, Eversync emerged as a leading virtual server backup software solution for SME environments. While there were a few products that outscored Eversync, in every case these other products were intended for deployment in large enterprise environments and with similarly high price tags to match. Virtual Server Backup Software SCORES AND RANKINGS * VIRTUAL SERVER BACKUP SOFTWARE SCORE RANKING 1. Eversync 5 70.00 Excellent 2. Dell Quest Software vranger 6.0 59.00 Good 3. Acronis VMProtect 55.00 Basic 4. Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 55.00 Basic 5. PHD Virtual v6.0 53.50 Basic 6. Dell AppAssure 5.2 47.50 Basic * Rankings and scores are taken from the DCIG 2013 Virtual Server Backup Software Buyer s Guide. The entire Buyer s Guide with all product rankings and scores is available at www.dcigbuyersguides.com. 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. 5

More important to note is that in the SME environments in which Eversync competes, it wins by a substantial margin over virtual server backup software intended for use in those environments. In addition to providing the core features that SMEs need to protect their virtualized environments, Eversync provides other key features that SMEs also need to protect and manage their entire environment. For instance, Eversync is one of the few backup software providers period to offer a mobile app for Apple and Android so administrators can monitor and manage their backup environments while on the go. Eversync also differentiates itself by providing support for multiple hypervisors to include Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat Linux KVM and VMware vsphere. This gives SMEs the freedom to choose the hypervisor or hypervisors that best fits their needs and budget without worrying about how they are going to protect the data hosted on any of these hypervisors. Finally, Eversync delivers its backup software on both physical and virtual appliances with the exact same capabilities. This gives SMEs the flexibility to deploy the most appropriate appliance according to the environment in which it is going. For instance, if Eversync is deployed in a larger environment where both physical and virtual machines are present, a physical backup appliance probably makes the most sense. However if an SME needs to protect a remote site, they may deploy an Eversync virtual appliance at that site with the option to use its native replication functionality to copy data from the remote site back to the main data center. Eversync physical and virtual appliances may also be deployed in conjunction with one another. This gives an SME the flexibility to deploy a virtual appliance in a remote office and a physical appliance in the main office and set up replication between the two. Eversync: The Right Virtual Server Backup Software Solution for SMEs One of the most important decisions SMEs face from an IT perspective is how to best leverage virtualization in their environment now and in the years to come. But inextricably linked to that decision is the virtual server backup solution they select to back it up and recover it. Virtualization by itself delivers many benefits but the right choice of virtual server backup software can do much more than simply protect the environment. It can address a multitude of other issues that SMEs have long sought to address but have had neither the technology nor budget to tackle. Eversync provides SMEs with the single comprehensive backup software solution that they need to meet the needs of both their legacy physical environment as well as rapidly growing virtual one. Further, it puts in place a foundation so they can centrally manage backup and recovery regardless if they are working locally or remotely while also offering a replication solution so they may address long standing issues such as disaster recovery. It is the comprehensive set of features found in Eversync coupled with its attractive price point that makes it easy to understand why it is the right virtual server backup software solution for SMEs. About Eversync Eversync gives peace of mind to its customers by providing total data protection solutions. The company s products combine enterprise-level disaster recovery, compliance, and backup capabilities in a simple and affordable package that is purpose-built for small and medium businesses. Eversync sells its products to a growing list of customers through an exclusive network of channel partners who are focused on SMBs and virtualization. For more information, see www.eversyncsolutions.com 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. 6

Appendix A HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISON OF FEATURES OF LEADING BACKUP SOFTWARE PRODUCTS MANAGEMENT Eversync 5 Acronis VMProtect 8 Dell AppAssure 5.2 Dell Quest Software vranger 6.0 PHD Virtual v6.2 Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 Agent Backup Tasks Notification Options Application Consistent Backup Email Syslog User Notification Inclusion of VMs (Powered Off) Exclusion of VMs (Powered Off Automatically Detect/Configure VMs Concurrently Backup Multiple VMs on Same Host Deduplication Options Disk Trending Disk Alerts (when reaching capacity) User Scheduling Single Archive Creation for each VM Exception Reports SUPPORT Support Options Email On-Site Phone Website BACKUP TECHNOLOGY Backup Types Full Backups Image-based backups Virtual OS Microsoft Hyper-V Red Hat Linux KVM VMware vsphere Continued on next page 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. A-1

Appendix A HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISON OF FEATURES OF LEADING BACKUP SOFTWARE PRODUCTS BACKUP TECHNOLOGY CONTINUED Eversync 5 Acronis VMProtect 8 Dell AppAssure 5.2 Dell Quest Software vranger 6.0 PHD Virtual v6.2 Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 Guest OSes AIX Linux Microsoft Windows Sun Solaris Physical Appliance 3rd party Physical Appearance Virtual Appliance vsphere Integration Storage I/O Control Storage vmotion VMware Data Recovery VMware ESXi VMware vcenter Server vsphere Distributed Resource Scheduler vsphere Fault Tolerance vsphere High Availability vsphere Storage APIs for Data Protection and VMware Data Recovery vsphere Storage DRS vsphere vmotion VADP CBT Application Differential Backups Incremental Backups Operating System Partial or Full Restore VADP Snapshot Location vcenter Server Restore Capabilities Management Interfaces ESX Hypervisor Full Image Mobile App Web Based Continuous File Access (Image-Based Backup) Continued on next page 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. A-2

Appendix A HEAD-TO-HEAD COMPARISON OF FEATURES OF LEADING BACKUP SOFTWARE PRODUCTS BACKUP TECHNOLOGY CONTINUED Eversync 5 Acronis VMProtect 8 Dell AppAssure 5.2 Dell Quest Software vranger 6.0 PHD Virtual v6.2 Veeam Backup & Replication 6.5 Data Compression VSS Metadata Query on VMs Server Self Backup Cross Job Deduplication Concurrent VM Backup (Physical Host) Backup Verification RESTORE V2P Restore Individual File Single Step Restore to Guest VM Replicate Backup to Secondary Server Concurrent Backup and Restore Direct Restore to Production Server Restore VM Using a Different Name Single Pass Mass Restore 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. A-3

Appendix B EVERSYNC 5.0 PRODUCT OVERVIEW Eversync 5.0 Approximate Starting List Price: Under $10,000 DCIG Scores and Rankings OVERALL SCORE Backup Technology Management Restore Support 70.00 37.00 17.00 8.00 8.00 EXCELLENT EXCELLENT GOOD GOOD EXCELLENT BACKUP TECHNOLOGY BACKUP TECHNOLOGY (CONTINUED) MANAGEMENT Virtual OS Microsoft Hyper-V, Red Hat Linux KVM, VMware vsphere Mgt Interfaces Continuous File Access (Image-Based Backup) Mobile App, Web Agent Backup Tasks Application Consistent Backups Guest OSes Physical Appliance AIX, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris Data Compression VSS Metadata Query on VMs Server Self Backup Notification Options Detects VMs w/significantly More Data Email, Syslog 3rd party Physical Appliance Cross Job Deduplication User Notification Virtual Appliance vsphere Integration Backup Types ESXi, vcenter Server, vmotion,storage vmotion, vsphere DRS, Storage DRS, SIOC, vsphere HA & FT, VADP, VMware Data Recovery File, Full, Image Concurrent VM Backup (Physical Host) Alert if Multiple VMs Backed Up on Same Physical Host Backup Verification Inclusion of VMs (Powered Off) Exclusion of VMs (Powered Off) Automatically Detect/Configure VMs VADP CBT VADP Snapshot Location vcenter Server Backup Capabilities Application, Email, Differential Backups, Incremental Backups, Operating System, Partial & Full Restore ESX Hypervisor RESTORE Single File Restore from Snapshots V2P Restore P2V Restore Detects New Physical Hosts & Configures VMs for Backup Detects DB & Installs Correct Agent Concurrently Backup Multiple VMs on Same Host Individual File Single Step Restore to Guest VM Deduplication Options Client vcenter Server Restore Capabilities vcenter Converter for Guest OS Restores Additional VMware Backup Utilities Storage Arrays for Managing Snapshots Full Image SUPPORT Replicate Backup to Secondary Server Concurrent Backup and Restore Direct Restore to Production Server Restore VM Using a Different Name Single Pass Mass Restore Disk Trending Disk Alerts (when reaching capacity) Dynamically Allocate Backup Jobs User Scheduling Single Archive Creation for each VM Server Prioritization Exception Reports Visibility into Array-Based Snapshots Support Options Email, Onsite, Phone, Website Cause Resume Producing Event Supported Unsupported 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. The information, product recommendations and opinions made by DCIG, LLC are based upon public information and from sources that DCIG, LLC believes to be accurate and reliable. This Buyer s Guide may only be used by the party that downloaded it for individual use with no distribution rights or privileges. 32 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. B-1

Appendix C DCIG Disclosures Over the last few years the general trend in the US has been for both large and boutique analyst firms to receive some or all of their revenue from vendors. DCIG is no different in that respect as it also receives payment for the different services it performs for vendors. The services that DCIG provides include blogging, case studies, product reviews, executive white papers, and head-to-head and special reports. In the interest of being transparent, a number of the vendors included in DCIG Buyer s Guides are or have been DCIG clients. This is not to imply that they were given preferential treatment in a Buyer s Guide. All it meant was that DCIG had more knowledge of their products and that DCIG would consider their product for inclusion in a particular Buyer s Guide. In that vein, there are a number of important facts to keep in mind when considering the information contained in DCIG Buyer s Guides and their merit. No vendor paid DCIG any fee to develop a Buyer s Guide. DCIG did not guarantee any vendor that its product would be included in a Buyer s Guide. DCIG did not imply or guarantee that a specific product would receive a good score on a Buyer s Guide, before or after completion. All research was based upon one or more of the following: publicly available information, information provided by the vendor and/or the expertise of those evaluating the information. Because of the number of features analyzed, how these features were weighted and then how these products were scored and then ranked, there was no way for DCIG to predict at the outset how individual products would end up scoring or ranking. DCIG wants to emphasize that no vendor was privy to how DCIG did the scoring and ranking of the products included in a Buyer s Guide. In every case a vendor only found out the scores and rankings of its product(s) after the analysis was complete. 2013 DCIG, LLC. All rights reserved. C-1