Datrium tries to tempt Amazon cloud backup folk: Psst, buddy... you want HCI?

Backup sucks

Hyperconverged system startup Datrium has spun out a DVX cloud instance for AWS.

DVX is Datrium's on-premises hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) system, with storage controller software in server nodes and a shared DVX storage array. This is different from most HCI systems, which have local storage in each HCI server node.

Cloud DVX is a cloud-native AWS instance and designed as a platform to provide recovery services for virtual machines (VMs) and vDisks running in DVX on-premises. The first service available on it is a SaaS utility providing such VM and vDisk snapshot-based backup and recovery.

It features global deduplication in the cloud (across protection groups, multiple on-premises DVX systems, and multiple sites) and Datrium claims it offers the simplest and most efficient approach to VM and vDisk level backup and recovery available within a converged or HCI system offering.

Datrium also said it features forever incremental backups, after initial seeding, and granular, dedupe-aware recovery for better recovery-time objectives (RTO) versus other AWS S3-based offerings. The firm manages service availability, provides automated software upgrades and says it gives users proactive support related to AWS resources. End-to-end encryption is also present.

With Cloud DVX there is no need for an on-premises cloud gateway device as DVX looks after that functionality, it claimed.

Datrium claimed the Cloud DVX service means AWS resources are 65 per cent lower^** versus big hitter in the space Nutanix Cloud Connect, and up to 91 per cent lower versus S3-based products from other hyper-converged backup vendors.

It also claimed that, because of the global on-premises and cloud deduplication capabilities of DVX, Cloud DVX provides an RTO more than 2X faster than Nutanix Cloud Connect.

We asked Nutanix for comment.

Also, it claimed, because DVX combines Tier 1 application consolidation with built-in data protection offering direct-to-host restore, Cloud DVX delivers 2X faster RTO compared to other HCI Backup vendors.

Datrium quoted a Gartner paper^* saying “deduplication is the key to reducing cloud storage costs, but most backup software's cloud connectors do not support deduplication.”

Brian Biles, Datrium's founder and CEO, came out with a typically pugnacious prepared quote: "Cloud should be the new Iron Mountain, but it's not. Most cloud backup approaches are still complex, expensive and slow. Datrium’s Cloud DVX recovery service is the first approach that really addresses these issues. Backup sucks – move on.”

The Datrium Cloud DVX recovery service is US list priced at $6,000 per 5 TB per year, and is available within 60 days. ®

* Is Cloud Storage the New Tape?

** Based on daily snapshots of 40 terabytes of data with a 2 per cent per day change rate over a 1 year period. AWS resources for Datrium were calculated to be $15.5K versus $44.5K for Nutanix Cloud Connect and $179K for S3-based HCI Backup – by Datrium, of course.