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Feb 08 2016
Software

Product Review: Veeam Availability Suite is a Solid, Cloud-Ready Backup Solution

Veeam Availability Suite offers a full feature set and easy, cloud-ready backup.
by

Logan G. Harbaugh is a longtime technology journalist with experience reviewing a wide range of IT products.

Veeam has gained a lot of traction with the Veeam Availability Suite (VAS) backup software, becoming one of the first companies to fully support virtualization software giants VMware and Microsoft.

In addition to supporting basic operating systems such as Windows Server and Linux, VAS 8 allows administrators to back up all virtual machines on a hypervisor such as vSphere 6 or Hyper-V, avoiding the parallel processes of backing up each individual VM separately. VAS also supports a variety of specialized server software applications such as Oracle, SQL Server, Exchange and Active Directory, as well as specific storage hardware features from vendors such as EMC, NetApp and HP.

A full list of the features in VAS runs many pages, along with the add-ons found in the new 9.0 version — a free upgrade for anyone who purchases 8.0. Suffice to say that either version can cover an entire higher ed enterprise environment, including hypervisors, servers and applications, with features to prevent the IO storms that can result from trying to back up multiple VMs simultaneously.

The new version, 9.0, includes integration with storage arrays to leverage snapshot features, which can improve backup times by a factor of 20, as well as deeper integration with SQL Server and Oracle databases that allows restores at the transaction level, providing a previously impossible level of granularity.

The 8.0 version we tested offers a quick, easy installation and excellent management features, as well as specific support for a wide variety of large-scale storage, database and hypervisor systems. It’s easy to recommend this product for virtually any environment. Per-CPU pricing means that a single-server environment can use the same features as a large data center without exorbitant pricing for extras.

How Veeam Keeps the Data Center Humming in the Cloud

For organizations that must provide always on, 24/7 service, it’s generally not enough to offer backups that can be restored when and if a system goes down. Instead, IT usually runs a second data center, with replicas of all servers, applications and data. That doubles the cost of infrastructure, however, and the second data center — while doubling power, cooling and administrative tasks —typically does not serve customers.

Veeam allows administrators to leverage the cloud to create a second virtual version of a data center without having to duplicate hardware. In an emergency, the entire virtual data center can be brought online quickly, replicating the functionality of the original without cost-prohibitive investment in hardware or second copies of software licenses.

Both the backups and the virtual machines to restore them can be created and maintained in the cloud without actually requiring anything to run until they’re needed. The management system eases the process of creating cloud storage repositories and designating VMs, and encrypts everything end to end, eliminating the risk of any data interception.

One of the prime considerations in bringing up an offsite replica is the time it takes to transfer the data, configure the virtual servers and get everything up and running. With Veeam Availability Suite, data is stored in the primary repository (typically onsite), but IT also has the option to store it in the cloud. When that option is selected, the system replicates data to the cloud repository, through the Cloud Gateway, and preconfigures VMs. In the event of a problem that takes the main data center offline, a few clicks get the cloud version up and running, limiting downtime or service interruptions.

Additional features include: near-continuous data protection; backup from snapshots; WAN acceleration, Cloud Connect and integration with major storage vendors; Virtual Lab, which allows re-creation of any production environment in a separate environment for testing; SureBackup and SureReplica, which ensure that files, applications and servers can be restored in case of problems; and proactive monitoring, which alerts managers before problems become serious.

Veeam Availability Suite

Platforms: Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, Active Directory and more
OS: All operating systems supported by VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V
Licensing: Per CPU socket for one year

FredFroese/Getty Images

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