Organizations are no longer all centrally located at a single headquarters. They are not even a collection of three or four locations. Instead, the modern organization can have dozens of sites. In specific industries like retail, these organizations can have hundreds, if not thousands of locations. Thanks to enhanced data collection from the Internet of Things (IoT) devices and enhanced networks like 5G, the need and practicality of these locations to have a data center of their own are increasingly common. These edge data centers create and modify a set of data that is unique to them and they may never sync that data with the core data center. Protecting the edge data center is now a critical task for IT.
Acknowledging that Edge Data Centers need protection is easy; identifying how to protect them is not. IT could architect a “hub and spoke model,” which centrally locates all the command and control, but that model may not be practical for many of these locations. They often need to be autonomous and maintain operations, even if the connection to the core is down.
Given the need for independent data protection, many organizations have looked to point solutions that are often cloud-based. The problem is the organization ends up with edge data protection solutions that are different from the enterprise solution used in primary data centers. These point solutions may not provide complete platform coverage as the organization’s enterprise solution. It may take multiple edge solutions to offer the protection the organization requires. The difference not only means increased training costs and operational complexity, but it also means more difficult data interchangeability between locations. Cloud-based solutions may also suffer from limited bandwidth or concerns over data security.
Enterprise organizations need a data protection solution that can run independently at the edge, yet still, be easily managed from a primary data center.
Introducing the Veritas Flex 5150
Storage Switzerland recently covered the Flex family of Veritas NetBackup Appliances in a recent Lightboard Video, “Addressing Data Protection Sprawl with Containers“. Flex Appliances bring container technology to NetBackup data protection. Organizations can run multiple NetBackup instances on a single Flex appliance and can create new deployments in minutes. They can also efficiently tier to the cloud with NetBackup CloudCatalyst containers.
The Veritas Flex 5150 is a flex appliance explicitly designed for the Edge Data Center. It leverages the same container technology as other flex appliances for easier deployments and upgrades. For transfers to the cloud or the core the appliance provides deduplication to maximize bandwidth efficiency.
The Flex 5150 is secure, and IT can remotely manage all the operations on the system. There is no need for specialized IT skills at each location. Data protected at the edge can be tiered automatically to backup storage at the primary data center or in the cloud, which keeps Edge Data Center storage requirements in check.
The Veritas Flex 5150 is a no-compromises backup solution for Edge Data Centers. It provides the complete NetBackup feature set and experience, eliminating data protection silos. With the 5150, Veritas demonstrates complete data protection from Edge to Core to Cloud, plus it provides robust protection of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions like Office 365.
StorageSwiss Take
Thanks to the ability to connect remote locations and those locations’ ability to collect and create data, Edge Data Center protection needs to be a top IT priority. While selecting a solution though, IT needs to make sure that it doesn’t compromise Core data center best practices. Having a single solution that can protect the organization throughout its distributed infrastructure, which includes the cloud and SaaS, is of paramount importance. Veritas, with the addition of the 5150, provides that complete picture while enabling IT to maintain data protection best practices.
George Crump is the Chief Marketing Officer at VergeIO, the leader in Ultraconverged Infrastructure. Prior to VergeIO he was Chief Product Strategist at StorONE. Before assuming roles with innovative technology vendors, George spent almost 14 years as the founder and lead analyst at Storage Switzerland. In his spare time, he continues to write blogs on Storage Switzerland to educate IT professionals on all aspects of data center storage. He is the primary contributor to Storage Switzerland and is a heavily sought-after public speaker. With over 30 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US, he has seen the birth of such technologies as RAID, NAS, SAN, Virtualization, Cloud, and Enterprise Flash. Before founding Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest storage integrators, where he was in charge of technology testing, integration, and product selection.
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