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Barracuda Lets Backup Users Replicate Data to AWS
Barracuda this week announced that its customers and partners can now leverage the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud as one of their options for data replication.
Data protection firm Barracuda provides backup and disaster recovery solutions aimed at end user customers, partners and managed services providers (MSPs). Its Barracuda Backup solution allows organizations to back up data from Office 365, physical servers and Hyper-V/VMware virtual machines to an on-site Barracuda backup appliance. That data is then replicated to an offsite storage location.
Until now, these offsite replication options were limited to a remote physical appliance, a remote virtual appliance or Barracuda's own cloud storage service. This week, however, Barracuda -- an AWS Advanced Technology Partner -- added the AWS Simple Storage Service (S3) to its list of supported data replication targets.
[Click on image for larger view.] Barracuda's backup customers now have the option to replicate data to an AWS S3 bucket.
"Barracuda's current replication technology allows organizations to securely and efficiently send data to the Barracuda Cloud or another backup appliance with minimal configuration," said Rod Mathews, senior vice president and general manager at Barracuda, in a prepared statement on Tuesday. "The new release gives customers and resellers adopting public cloud the flexibility to replicate data to AWS with the same simplicity -- providing a choice of deployment options with the ability to maintain ownership and control of cloud data."
The option to replicate data to AWS is a boon for organizations that do not have the budget to maintain a remote physical site, according to Barracuda. It's also convenient for those that are planning on, or are already in the midst of, migrating part or all of their resources to the public cloud. If a customer is unable to restore their data on-premises, for example, they have the option to recover their data from AWS S3 directly to an AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environment.
There are benefits related to compliance, as well.
"AWS customers have complete control over their assets in the public cloud, all the way down to the geographic location of where the S3 bucket resides. If you are restricted by compliance issues, this option may simplify your infrastructure and cut costs on your data protection," said Barracuda's Christine Barry in a blog post.
According to Barracuda, customers who choose the AWS option to replicate their data will not have to spin up any additional AWS resources or do complicated configurations.
"Resellers and customers who have a basic understanding of AWS infrastructure will be able to set up replication quickly, and no cloud-side tuning will be required on the part of the customer," the company said in its announcement. "Users who are familiar with Barracuda solutions will find the same easy-to-use Barracuda Cloud Control administration console."
Currently, the AWS integration with Barracuda Backup is available only to customers in North America, though it will be expanded to other markets in the next few months. More information on the Barracuda Backup solution is available here.