Druva brings dedupe, WAN optimization to laptop backup

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This week, Druva began shipping the inSync 4.1 Enterprise edition of its backup software, which is designed specifically for protecting data on laptops and other “endpoint” devices.

Druva officials cite a number of interesting statistics in explaining why companies need backup software optimized for remote/mobile devices. For example, data “on the edge” is doubling every 18 months; 50% of enterprise workers are mobile or remote; and 28% of corporate data resides on laptops, according to the Gartner research and consulting firm. However, only 35% of those laptops are backed up on a regular basis, according to the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). About 17% of laptops that lose data can’t be recovered, and the cost of a lost, unprotected laptop is $49,000, according to research from Microsoft and Intel, respectively.

inSync is an alternative to “legacy” server backup software, cloud-based backup, and approaches such as backing up to a USB drive or a NAS share.

Druva co-founder and CEO Jaspreet Singh contends that server backup vendors have “tacked on” laptop backup as an “afterthought” and have not optimized their software for laptop backup. And he argues that the drawbacks to cloud-based backup/recovery are that it lacks centralized control by IT and users are still concerned about security and compliance concerns in the cloud.

Singh cites inSync 4.1 Enterprise’s ease of use, claiming that users can deploy the client software in less than 20 minutes, but he says that the keys to the software’s differentiation lie in its data deduplication and WAN optimization features.

Druva’s inSync is based on global, source-based, application-aware deduplication. The company claims that its data deduplication can save up to 90% in network bandwidth and storage capacity (and costs), while maintaining 100% accuracy in the deduplication process.

inSync also includes the Octopus WAN Optimization Engine, which Singh claims can provide 5X faster backups over WANs, compared to traditional backup software, by optimizing the size of packets and by leveraging multiple threads (up to 16 parallel connections). A Smart Bandwidth Throttling feature enables users to set specific limitations on the percentages of WAN bandwidth, LAN bandwidth and CPU usage.

Another component of inSync is the Blackbird Storage Engine, which provides “near” continuous data protection (CDP), the deduplication file system, distributed caching, and support for solid state disk (SSD), which can be used for metadata.

inSync Enterprise Server software runs on commodity server hardware and can support up to 2,000 laptops per server. Supported server platforms include Windows and Linux (physical/virtual), and supported clients include Windows, Linux and Mac.

Pricing for inSync 4.1 Enterprise starts at $40 per client.

iPad and iPhone applications will be available by the end of the month.

Druva was founded in 2007, and claims more than 600 enterprise customers. Three of Druva’s founding executives came from Symantec/Veritas.

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