Asigra, a Toronto-based maker of data protection software, is offering its data backup prowess to cloud storage providers in the form of an all-in-one appliance.
Today, the company announced the Asigra Converged Data Protection DS-System Appliance, which “enables the service provider to plug in a turnkey box and have the service up and running in minutes,” William Kulju, senior product marketing at Asigra, told InfoStor. Targeted at the managed service providers (MSPs) that may not have rolled out a cloud backup offering yet, the hardware meets the multi-tenancy requirements of cloud companies. For providers seeking “to protect multiple customers on one appliance, they can do so easily,” he added.
When it ships in later this summer, Asigra’s new backup appliances will be available in three flavors.
The 1U 1800 supports up to 9.6 terabytes (TB) of deduplicated and compressed billable capacity, while the 2U 3600 and 4U 5400 versions can accommodate up to 33 TB and 96 TB of billable backup data, respectively. Eight-core Xeon server processors from Intel power the Supermicro-based systems’ underlying FreeBSD operating system, ZFS file system and Asigra’s Cloud Backup V13 software for agentless data protection that spans multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS. Each appliance packs 32 GB of DDR4 memory. Connectivity is provided by dual 10 gigabit Ethernet ports.
Billable is the operative word. In a bid to make the appliances cost-effective for MSPs and cloud backup providers to deploy, a customer “only pays for the hardware” upfront, said Kulju, which “includes a free terabyte of Asigra-licensed capacity.”
When more is required, customers can simply purchase more storage space from Asigra, allowing them to “pay as they grow,” Kulju. Asigra estimates that the appliances allow MSPs to deliver backup-as-a-service for 50 cents per gigabyte (GB) per month, putting them back in the black in a mere four months.
The company teamed with Avnet Embedded, a global distributor, to ship the systems directly to service providers. Asigra handles the ordering and remains the first point of contact for support services and requests.
Eran Farajun, executive vice president of Asigra, called the offering “a backup/DR [disaster recovery] industry first that tackles the inflexible designs and costs of traditional storage systems, introducing a new approach to highly scalable and performant data protection storage,” in an official statement. “The approach enables service providers who want to offer cloud backup services for the first time a quick and easy way to get to market in days rather than months with all of the Asigra marketing and sales support provided through our Hybrid Partner Program.”
Asigra Converged Data Protection DS-System Appliance are scheduled to ship in August. Prices start at “well under $5,000” for the 1U 1800, said Kulju.