Asigra Cloud Backup
Asigra Cloud Backup is an enterprise level backup and recovery software platform produced and marketed by Asigra Inc. It is a hardware and software agnostic solution that supports the backup of a variety of devices, operating platforms, enterprise applications and hypervisors. The Asigra software is agentless and does not require a software agent to be installed on each of the machines or platforms that need to be backed up.
Asigra Cloud Backup supports the backup and recovery of and can be installed on leading operating systems such as Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac OS, iOS and Android. The software also supports the backup and restore of virtualization platforms including VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix XenServer. All of these environments and platforms can be protected in a single repository, which itself can be replicated.
The software also backs up enterprise applications such as Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint, database platforms such as Oracle, DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostGreSQL, file systems, applications, physical and virtual machines.
The platform also offers capabilities to backup and recover data in endpoint devices such as tablets, smartphones, laptops and desktops, and also has the capability to protect data residing in cloud-based applications and platforms such as PaaS and SaaS infrastructures.
History
Asigra Cloud Backup was born as DS-Televaulting in 1986 to remotely backup files and folders to an offsite repository. Over the years, the functionality has expanded to backup significantly larger number of use cases, platforms, and source machines.
The product was branded as Asigra Cloud Backup in 2009. The product has had twelve major releases with the latest version, Asigra Cloud Backup V12 having been released in November 2012.
Product Components
Asigra Cloud Backup consists of a number of components:
Core Components
The core components consist of:
DS-Client is the data aggregator software that collects all the data for backup at the source and sends the data to the offsite repository for storage after deduplication, compression, and encryption. The DS-Client is agentless. Therefore, just one copy of the software is sufficient to backup all the data on a singular network.
DS-System is the storage vault that receives all the backup data from various DS-Clients and stores the data in the backup repository at the remote offsite data center.
Backup Lifecycle Management is the software component that helps reduce the software cost of protecting less critical data by moving the data to an archival repository where it can be stored for the longer term for business or compliance reasons.
The Asigra Cloud License Server is a piece of software that helps manage, monitor, and modify license capacities all across the various Asigra components within the environment. This includes managing and provisioning capacity, expiration dates, notifications, and managing license capacities across physical or virtual server, the geographic locations in which they are located, or the software and hardware configurations that they are running on.
Other Modules
The software also contains other modules such as the DS-NOC (Network Operations Center) for monitoring and control, and the DS-Billing software for customer billing and chargeback.
Features
Asigra Cloud Backup consists of what the company calls Recovery and Restore Assurance (R2A) features that help ensure recoveries from the backup repository. This consists of features such as Autonomic Healing, a self healing module that scans the backup repository for corruptions and runs algorithms to clear them; and Restore Validation, a feature that helps run automated test recoveries at the data center.
The software also allows for local storage of backup data for scenarios where highly critical data needs to be restored at LAN speeds. This is facilitated by features such as the Local Storage and the Local Only features within the software. The software also enables the replication of the backed up data to a secondary location with options for both one-way replication and two way ACTIVE-Active replication.
Asigra Cloud Backup performs global deduplication and compression of the data to optimize the usage of storage resources. The software uses a FIPS 140-2 certified encryption module and has options to encrypt the data using secure AES 256 bit encryption at source to enable only the sending of encrypted data for storage in the backup repositories.
Other features include an integration of snapshots in the software and access to their management through a complimentary Snapshot Manager interface, instant recovery capabilities for virtual machines through the Virtual Disaster Recovery (VDR) capability, and a set of consultative tools such as the LAN Storage Discovery and Statistical Backups that help estimate and plan backup and recovery activities.
Product Variations and Licensing
There are multiple variations of the product available based on the platforms and machines that need to be backed up.
The DS-Client software is free. Users can download and configure as many or as few as desired. There are various versions of the DS-Client for different platforms / use cases.
- FullFeatured DS-Client: Allows the full set of backup and recovery operations available in the software. Separate versions of this software are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac
- DS-Mobile Client for the backup and recovery of standalone Windows laptops
- DS-Consumer Client for the backup and recovery of standalone Windows desktops
- DS-Notebook Client for the backup and recovery of standalone Mac laptops and desktops
- DS-Client applications for smartphones and tablets. Separate versions are available for iOS and Android.
The DS-System software is available in three configurations:
- FullFeatured DS-System: Allows organizations to backup data through all the features available in the product
- Mobile DS-System: Allows for the collection of data from endpoint devices
- Consumer DS-System: Allows for backup and recovery from standalone desktops, tablets and smartphones
Awards and Recognition
Asigra Cloud Backup has been featured in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software for two years in a row.
The company was awarded the 2012 North American New Product Innovation Award in Cloud-Based Data Management by Frost & Sullivan.