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During the recent VMworld Europe, I’ve got the opportunity to talk with Henrik Rosendahl, SVP of Cloud Solutions of Quantum about their products for virtualization enviroments. I’ve already met them one year ago, during the past edition of Powering The Cloud and this was the opportunity to know the news about those months.

Quantum is one of the global expert in data protection and big data management solutions. Since 1980, they’ve been focused on helping IT departments address data protection and big data challenges with innovative solutions and world-class service and support. Quantum sells its branded products through a distribution network that includes more than 20 distributors and 5,000 resellers worldwide. Quantum also sells its products through leading OEMs such as Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM and NetApp, as well as tape automation suppliers and tape media partners.

But they don’t sell only hardware solution, but also some software solutions related to data protection.

Interesting also the path of Henrik Rosendahl. He was the CEO of Pancetera prior to its acquisition by Quantum. Previously, Henrik was VMware’s Director of Application Virtualization, resulting from VMware’s acquisition of Thinstall where he served as CEO. Henrik is a successful serial entrepreneur with extensive business development and sales experience. He founded In2itive Technologies in 1992, which was successfully sold to SPSS in 1997. Henrik was also formerly the CEO of Interse A/S, EVP PremiTech inc. and VP at IT Factory Inc. Science.

And Henrik has confirmed the interested of Quantum in the backup and data protection area (area that also interested at VMware with the new version of VDP Advanced).

Their vmPRO VM Data Protection Software (now at version 3.1) is a backup software native for the virtual environments that save in native VMware format (this could be interesting to avoid data locking or improve recovery time) and use a special technique to qualify data and avoid un-usable information (like the swap file of a VM). It works as a virtual appliance and could work with DXi Deduplication to store on a NAS or on the cloud. Otherwise can use to a Scalar LTFS NAS target that can store on a tape library. There is also an appliance version (vmPRO 4000) if you prefer an external system instead of a VM.

The Disk Backup Systems are usually the most used targets, but of course not the only choice. Anyway the DXi series is interesting for its patent deduplication engine and for the ability to save on the cloud. There is also a deduplication solution in a virtual appliance model (DXi V1000) that combines the power of dedupe with the simplicity and flexibility of a virtual machine.

Both vmPRO and the DXi V1000 are available in a free version with the only limitation on the amount of space: vmPRO Stardard edition is free for 1TB and DXi V1000 is free for 15 TB.

And finally we have talk about Q-Cloud, the Business-Class Cloud Based Data Protection Solutions. It’s an enterprise solution for public BaaS and it’s used also by big customers and big data (also several petabyte). Actually there are two main datacenters: one in Las Vegas and one in London. There is calculator to estimate the cost considering the amount of data and the capability of the deduplication engine. The effective cost could around 0.08$ for GB for month in a 10TB simulation or 0.01$ in a 1PB simulation. Of course this kind of simulation could differ from a real case considering the type of data and the deduplication effectiveness.

They have also launched a reseller programs for other cloud providers (actually there are around 20 partners), in a pay-per-use model to minimize the risks.

See also the other mine reports from VMworld Europe 2013.

Andrea Mauro

Virtualization, Cloud and Storage Architect. Tech Field delegate. VMUG IT Co-Founder and board member. VMware VMTN Moderator and vExpert 2010-24. Dell TechCenter Rockstar 2014-15. Microsoft MVP 2014-16. Veeam Vanguard 2015-23. Nutanix NTC 2014-20. Several certifications including: VCDX-DCV, VCP-DCV/DT/Cloud, VCAP-DCA/DCD/CIA/CID/DTA/DTD, MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, CCA, NPP.