Zmanda Enhances Backup and DR for VMware

Zmanda, provider of open source based backup solutions and a VMware Technology Alliance Partner, announced enhancements to its VMware Backup Client for Amanda Enterprise (AE).

In addition to running a full image-level backup of a live virtual machine (VM), users now have the ability to run faster and more efficient block-level differential backups of VMs. During recovery, the Zmanda’s VMware backup client will automatically combine a full backup image with the relevant differential backup image.

Performance benefits are also achieved with the new VMware Client because only those blocks that are being used by the virtual machine are backed up. The client skips the unused raw space on the Virtual Machine Disks (VMDKs), which considerably reduces the size of backup images. This also makes the backup process faster by reducing the amount of data being transferred over the LAN.

Also announced, VMware vSphere backup is now a built-in feature of the Zmanda Backup Appliance (ZBA). ZBA is a pre-loaded VM, licensed, and configured with Amanda Enterprise and can immediately back up all virtual machines running on the same hypervisor as the appliance. With its flat rate, all inclusive pricing model, ZBA is a very cost effective alternative to licensing backup for each virtual machine in the environment.

"Zmanda continues to drive down the cost of backup for small and medium-sized organizations using its innovative development and business model," said Arun Taneja, founder, Taneja Group. "The ability to optimize backups of live VMs makes Zmanda’s backup solutions even more attractive for modern IT environments."

"Zmanda’s open source backup solutions deliver comprehensive data protection of VMware environments at a fraction of the cost and complexity of competitive offerings," said Chander Kant, chief executive officer, Zmanda. "Customers also have the peace of mind knowing that their backup data is stored in open formats and will be accessible regardless of specific technology in use."

vSphere is VMware’s first cloud operating system, able to manage large pools of virtualized computing infrastructure, including software and hardware. Zmanda VMware Backup Client supports backup of VMs running on vSphere Essentials, vSphere Essential Plus, vSphere Standard, vSphere Advanced, vSphere Enterprise, or vSphere Enterprise Plus. Zmanda’s VMware backup solution provides end-to-end recovery of a VM to the original hypervisor or even to a completely independent hypervisor.

AE is an enhanced and supported version of the world’s most popular open source backup and recovery software. AE allows users to easily and affordably backup, archive, and recover servers, workstations, desktops and business-critical applications across a network. The backup data and archives can be stored on disks, tape, optical devices or storage clouds such as Amazon S3.

ZBA is a pre-configured virtual backup server powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. ZBA enables IT organizations to quickly and easily install a backup and recovery solution for heterogeneous desktops and servers. ZBA can backup information to local disk, tape, and is the first virtual appliance that can backup to a public or private cloud. Zmanda developed the ZBA solution as part of the SUSE Appliance Program, a comprehensive business and technology program that enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to rapidly build, update, configure and go to market with fully-supported software and virtual appliances.

The VMware Client for AE is available for $300 and may be purchased and downloaded. ZBA is available at a starting price of $600 per year and may be purchased and downloaded.