TwinStrata Updates CloudArray To Target Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service

TwinStrata, a developer of appliances that attach customers' IT infrastructures to public cloud storage, unveiled a Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service offering that helps solution providers bring disaster recovery to clients without the need to invest in secondary infrastructures.

TwinStrata also updated its flagship CloudArray software with the ability to use data snapshots in lieu of backup and recovery software, said Nicos Vekiarides, CEO of the Natick, Mass.-based storage vendor.

"We're giving our customers freedom from backup software, and from disaster recovery and related management headaches," Vekiarides said.

[Related: AWS' New Gateway-Cached Volumes Brings Primary Storage To Public Clouds ]

TwinStrata's new Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service offering, called CloudArray DRaaS, is a new addition to the TwinStrata CloudArray hardware-based and software-based appliances.

CloudArray DRaaS provides disaster recovery without the need for investing in tapes or in an off-site IT infrastructure, Vekiarides said. While TwinStrata has been providing the ability to recover data from a public storage cloud for some time, CloudArray DRaaS lets customers recover both their data and applications and run them from a cloud in case of a disaster, he said.

CloudArray DRaaS offers customers a two-hour to four-hour spin-up SLA, Vekiarides said. "They can get their data back and their apps up and running in the cloud," he said. "But they may need extra time to get all the virtual machines up and running."

Vekiarides said CloudArray DRaaS can work with customers' existing backup software, or can work in conjunction with VMware's vSphere Replicator technology in place of dedicated backup software.

CloudArray DRaaS supports Google, Amazon S3 and S3 RRS (Reduced Redundancy Storage), and Nirvanix clouds. It also supports VMware operating environments, with Microsoft Hyper-V support expected soon.

CloudArray DRaaS is available with CloudArray at no extra charge.

Rod Rudd, practice director cloud computing at MMY Consulting, an Indianapolis-based solution provider and Google enterprise partner, said his company has found TwinStrata to be a good partner for doing data backups to the cloud for VMware customers looking for disaster recovery options.

"For our VMware customers, they get an exact duplicate of their VMware environment with data on the cloud for quick RTO [return to operation]," Rudd said. "And not only will they have a real disaster recovery plan, they can have recovery at a fraction of the cost of other solutions."

NEXT: Other Updates To TwinStrata CloudArray

TwinStrata has maDe disaster recovery in VMware environments easy, Rudd said.

"If you are a VMware shop, there's a VMware target waiting for you," he said. "We're excited about it. It's easy for customers to get disaster recovery without all the traditional costs."

TwinStrata also unveiled new features for CloudArray including snapshot scheduling, which allows aging, retention and scheduling of snapshots. "You can build a whole retention policy and automate the process," Vekiarides said.

Also new is bandwidth throttling, which customers can use to fine-tune the bandwidth for specific applications from zero to full-speed, he said.

TwinStrata also introduced volume migration across policies to allow the movement of hot data volumes to larger or faster cache for performance or to cold or archive storage when no longer needed.

PUBLISHED MAY 21, 2013