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Veeam unveils SureBackup

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Veeam today presented a technology preview of its SureBackup concept. SureBackup is part of what Veeam calls “Virtualization-Powered Protection”. After a couple of weeks of buzz creation (including a dedicated website featuring nothing but a big countdown clock), readers might be disappointed to learn that Veeam Backup and Replication version 5, which will included the feature set that makes up SureBackup, won’t ship until Q3. (That is, July at its earliest.)

With that caveat out of the way, let’s see what the fuzz is all about.
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Release: Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0

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Veeam Software, provider of systems management tools for VMware virtual datacenter environments, today announced version 4.0 of Veeam Backup & Replication, a backup solution for VMware environments.

With version 4.0, Veeam will be the first to support new VMware vSphere 4 vStorage technology. With this new release, Veeam extends its leadership in the VMware backup market with the most innovative features and the most customer value. Backup & Replication 4.0 will be demonstrated in Veeam’s booth, #1202, at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco next week.

Only Veeam Backup & Replication offers full native support for new VMware vSphere functionality, and version 4.0 takes full advantage of the VMware vStorage API. This includes:

  • Support for thin-provisioned disks, which enables faster full backups and restore of virtual machines
  • The ability to leverage ESX4 changed block tracking for much faster incremental backups
  • Support for virtual applications (vApp), resulting in more flexibility when setting up backup jobs

The vStorage API is a VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) replacement that enables local area network-free backups directly from storage area network (SAN) storage, without affecting an organization’s production ESX or ESXi hosts.

Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0 also includes a new Enterprise Management Server that enables enterprise customers to manage multiple installations of Veeam Backup & Replication through a single web console. This allows customers to centralize backup and decentralize restore processes according to their administrative, business, geographical, and security requirements and boundaries. Native support for this distributed architecture offers the ability to easily scale VMware backup infrastructure as the virtual environment grows, while also providing centralized management and reporting capabilities.

Additional new features in Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0 include:

  • Near real-time replication leveraging new vSphere ESX4 functionality to provide five-minute increments to achieve better recovery point objectives (RPOs)
  • Hot VM copy capability to mirror production environments to test lab storage, for datacenter migrations or for ad-hoc backups
  • Backup storage space monitoring with alerts for advanced backup storage capacity planning
  • Replica seeding for the initial replication using removable storage to minimize traffic over WAN

Veeam Backup & Replication 4.0 is expected to be generally available in early October. North American pricing for the new version starts at $599 per socket, but the previous version’s price of $499 per socket will be honored on orders placed by Dec. 31, 2009.

Release: Veeam nworks Management Pack for MSCOM 5.0

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Veeam Software, provider of systems management tools for VMware virtual datacenter environments, today released version 5.0 of its nworks Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager and Smart Plug-in for HP Operations Manager.

The products allow customers to leverage their investments in Microsoft Operations Manager and HP Operations Manager to monitor and manage VMware vSphere virtual environments from within the enterprise management console already in place.

With version 5.0, Veeam has improved the operational aspects of the products for enhanced scalability and a lower total cost of ownership, all while remaining agentless on the ESX server. A new component called the nworks Management Center dramatically improves scalability, high availability and load balancing by managing multiple instances of the nworks Collector in large enterprise deployments. Expanded support for VMware vSphere and enterprise-class centralized administration ensure that these VMware Ready Optimized nworks solutions from Veeam are “future proofed” and optimized for the world’s largest enterprise deployments.

New features in version 5.0 include:

  • Full, native support for vSphere 4 – Preconfigured monitoring of new features in vSphere 4, including Distributed Power Management, Host Profiles and Virtual Applications (vApp).
  • New nworks Management Center – a new web-based administrative interface dramatically improves scalability, high availability and load balancing, and simplifies the deployment configuration and usability of multiple instances of the nworks MP and SPI throughout the enterprise.
  • High availability – the centralized license and configuration features of the new Management Center make it possible to create “hot standby” nworks Collectors. Any nworks Collector “heartbeat” failure automatically triggers redistribution of the failed Collector’s jobs to a standby Collector, assuring no lapse in monitoring availability.
  • Load balancing – in enterprises using multiple instances of the nworks Collectors, monitoring jobs are automatically assigned using the Balance feature, optimizing workload distribution and eliminating the need to configure individual Collectors.
  • License server – now a pool of licenses is shared across all enterprise instances of the nworks Collector, greatly simplifying deployment in large, dynamic environments.

The nworks MP and SPI from Veeam have both been qualified through the VMware Ready testing process and are certified as VMware Ready Optimized products. The nworks MP and SPI are VMware endorsed solutions for VMware management per the VMware Ready Management program, providing customer assurance that these Veeam products not only offer lower integration costs today, but also will support VMware infrastructure future directions.

The Veeam nworks MP and SPI 5.0 are both available immediately, with North American pricing remaining at $450 USD per socket for the MP and $690 USD per socket for the SPI.

Veeam Business View Released, Veeam Reporter Enterprise Updated

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Veeam Software recently made available a new add-on tool that works with other Veeam products to group, view and manage virtual machines based on criteria such as business unit, department, location, server purpose, or service level agreement. This alternate view of the VMware infrastructure supports chargeback and helps control “VM sprawl” by linking every virtual machine to a business service. At the same time, Veeam has updated its Reporter Enterprise product to enhance several reports and to integrate the new Business View capability.

Veeam Business View automates the use of VMware’s native custom attributes to categorize VMs. Business View also allows editing the attributes manually for one or multiple VMs at a time, or automatically based on pre-defined rules. For example, VMware administrators can define an automated rule such as “if a VM has retail in its name, add it to the Retail Banking category.”

Business View is integrated with Veeam Reporter Enterprise, the Veeam nworks Management Pack and the nworks Smart Plug-in. In the near future, it will also be integrated with Veeam Monitor and Veeam Backup & Replication. Business View is available at no extra charge for all current Veeam customers on maintenance.

Key benefits of Business View include:

  • Manage VMs from a business perspective – Group, view and manage virtual machines based on business criteria.
  • Prioritize resource allocation and utilization – Business View’s unique dashboard view allows administrators to see at a glance the number of VMs, vCPUs, amount of memory and storage used by each business unit, department, and server type.
  • Control VM sprawl – Business View helps control VM sprawl by categorizing virtual machines. Unassigned VMs and the resources they consume can be immediately seen on the web-based dashboard.
  • Define a chargeback model – Together with Veeam Monitor and Veeam Reporter Enterprise, Business View provides the flexibility to define a customized chargeback model. VM group information can be exported to a Microsoft Excel document for reporting or integration with other chargeback, inventory, or billing systems.
  • Integrate with existing VM categorization process – Customers already using custom attributes to group VMs by business unit, department, purpose, or SLA can automate and extend what they already have – no need to recreate everything from scratch.
  • Open architecture – Because Business View integrates with VMware vCenter data, customers can leverage the advantages of Veeam Business View with the VMware Virtual Infrastructure Client and other third-party products. To reduce complexity, Veeam Business View comes with a built-in web service that allows any application to quickly query a specific category’s content directly from the Business View server, without putting any extra load on the vCenter server.

Veeam Business View is available immediately at no charge to all Veeam customers on maintenance.

Veeam Software Introduces New Essentials Bundle, Acceleration Kits for VMware vSphere 4

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Veeam Software, provider of systems management tools for VMware virtual datacenter environments, today introduced new product bundles designed to pair with VMware vSphere Essentials for small office deployments and with the VMware Acceleration Kits for organizations of all sizes just starting out with virtualization.

The new Veeam Essentials bundle, available for resellers to license alongside VMware Essentials, is ideal for small business or remote/branch office locations. It includes six sockets of:

  • Veeam Backup & Replication
  • Veeam Reporter
  • Veeam Monitor

Additionally, Veeam now offers four editions of the Veeam Acceleration Kit, designed to help organizations of any size getting started with virtualization. These kits are limited to one per customer site.

The Veeam Acceleration Kit Standard includes either six or eight sockets of:

  • Veeam Reporter Enterprise
  • Veeam Configurator
  • Veeam Monitor

The Veeam Acceleration Kit Plus includes either six or eight sockets of:

  • Veeam Backup & Replication
  • Veeam Reporter Enterprise
  • Veeam Configurator
  • Veeam Monitor

At the same time, Veeam introduced a new policy with respect to support for the free edition of VMware ESXi. “As a longtime Premier Technology Alliance Partner and supporter of VMware’s product strategy, Veeam Software takes great pride in creating innovative software products that enhance the customer value of VMware ESX, ESXi, and ESXi Free,” said Ratmir Timashev, Veeam president and CEO. “One such example is support for the free edition of VMware ESXi in Veeam Backup and Replication.

For small or branch office environments, Veeam advises new customers to buy VMware vSphere Essentials and the new Veeam Essentials bundle. This combination costs exactly the same amount of money as purchasing six sockets of Veeam Backup at regular list price for use with free ESXi, and this option includes Veeam Monitor and Veeam Reporter, for even greater customer value.

The new Veeam bundles are available immediately, with North American pricing beginning at $1,995 for six sockets of Veeam Essentials; $3,150 for six sockets of the Veeam Acceleration Kit Standard; and $4,620 for six sockets of Veeam Acceleration Kit Plus.

Apologies For The Radio Silence

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We would like to apologize to our readers, and particularly those who subscribe to our RSS feed and/or e-mail newsletter, for not posting any news for the past couple of days. We moved offices and it took us a while to get our internet access back. But we’re back now, and here’s an overview of what happened while we were sitting on a tropical island in no-internet-hell.

Veeam has a new CFO (William H. Largent)

BlueStripe Software raised Series B funding to the tune of $8 million from Valhalla Partners and Trinity Ventures.

CohesiveFT added both Fedora Core 10 and Internal Eucalyptus Cloud Deployment Option to its Elastic Server platform

Tranxition has announced general availability of LiveManage for Virtual Migrations 7.0

VMware has announced vSphere, its infamous cloud operating system (and then some)

rPath has announced rBuilder 5

Pano Logic has appointed Parmeet S. Chaddha as executive vice president of engineering

VMware put out their financial numbers for the first quarter of 2009

Leostream released Connection Broker 6.0

Citrix today announced that the beta release of XenServer 5.5 (code-named “Project George”) is available