Barracuda Backup Competitive Analysis to i365

Company Overview

• Headquarters: Campbell, CA
• Type: Privately Held
• Company Size: 201 employees
• Founded: 2002
• Revenue: $70.7M (2007)
• Products: Security appliances for email, Internet, Website, and IM protection
• Primary Industries: Financial services, manufacturing, technology, consumer goods, utilities, and retail
• Related News:
• Acquired BitLeap in November 2008
• Acquired Yosemite Technologies in January 2009

Key Products/ Services

• Barracuda Backup Service – A hybrid approach with a local appliance and offsite cloud-based backup and storage
• Yosemite Server Backup – A software solution for protecting data on Windows, Linux and Netware servers
• Yosemite Desktop/Laptop Backup – A software solution for protecting data on your Windows-based PC

Their Positioning and Messaging

• Strong competitor in spam filtering and virus
• Known for their spam filtering / virus firewalls
• Disruptive pricing strategy to quickly gain market share
• Focus on appliance-based solutions

Pricing

• There is an upfront charge for the appliance, and then the monthly subscription fee:
• Backup Server Appliance: $1000 – $45,000
• Monthly Subscription Fee: $0.50/GB in Tiers
• (No overage fees, No agent fees, and No per fees)

Their Strengths

• All-in-one solution for easy deployment
• BMR included at no extra charge
• Easy-to-use Web interface with reporting and statistics
• Replication to two locations within the cloud

Their Weaknesses

• New to backup space.  Barracuda’s main focus is the security space.  Entered backup space in 2008 with acquisition of BitLeap
• Limited references. Only one customer reference for backup service on their website.   
• Security. Barracuda data centers aren’t SAS70 certified.  Barracuda does not provide end-to-end encryption, only encrypts from the appliance to their data center
• Requires an appliance. There needs to be at least one appliance at each of the customer’s physical locations.
• No BMR integration.  Barracuda supports BMR with Yosemite BMR, which not integrated with BBS, meaning more complexity.
• No DR option.  Barracuda does not provide a DR solution – cannot help customers that have a complete site outage.
• Technology efficiency. Barracuda only supports bandwidth throttling from the appliance to the cloud.  This could cause a bandwidth bottleneck when backups are running, disrupting business.
• Limited platform and application support.  Barracuda does not support virtual machines or desktops.  It also does not support Oracle, SharePoint, Solaris, HPUX, IBM AIX, IBMi.

Things to watch out for

• They will tout that they are the lowest cost solution; They are aggressively competing on price
• They will state they provide six ways to Restore
• Barracuda says that software solutions are difficult to install and manage. What’s more, the hardware required is difficult to manage and support
• They say that appliance-based backup solutions put minimal burden on production servers
• They will state that they give you the opportunity to selectively replicate data offsite
• They promote the fact that they backup to two geographically dispersed data centers

Feature Comparisons 

• Encryption: They only encrypt data starting at the appliance. EVault offers end-to-end security with encryption starting from the agent and through the entire data transfer process and while the data is at rest
• Local backups: Keeping a local backup onsite is good for quick recoveries. This can be done from the Barracuda Backup Server. i365 also offers Express Recovery Appliance or Plug-n-Protect
• Delta-Processing & Deduplication: With an Agent, Barracuda uses similar delta-processing and backend dedupe techniques to EVault
• Platform Support: Barracuda offers support for Windows Server, Linux, Novell, Mac OS X. We offer support for Windows Server, Novell, Linux, Unix VMWare, Windows Desktop
• Bare Metal Restore: Barracuda includes Yosemite BMR, but it's not integrated into their BBS solution; customers must have locally attached storage.  Our BMR is sold separately, but it is integrated; customers can back up over the network
• Multiple restore methods: Barracuda offers similar restore methods: Over network or shipment of storage module
• Bandwidth Throttling: Barracuda touts bandwidth throttling, but it only offers bandwidth throttling from the appliance to cloud. EVault offers dynamic bandwidth throttling starting at the agent. EVault also offers compression starting at the agent. These two features minimize the impact to a customer's network and enable the customer to deploy agents in remote locations (without the need of an onsite appliance/vault
• Centralized Management: Both solutions offer centralized management via a web-based interface.

I365 Silver Bullets

• Has been a full service data protection company for over 12 years, with deep expertise and a range of DR products and services that extend way beyond backup.
  • DR Experts, Consulting and Tests (Barracuda doesn’t offer DR services or PS)
  • Over 25,000 customers doing millions of backups and tens of thousands of restores per year.
  • 100% success on declared recoveries and backup is no good without a recovery!
  • 96% satisfaction with customer service
  • Integrated DR with Remote Disaster Recovery (they don’t have it)
  • Integrated BMR (theirs is not)
• Offer a wider range of deployment options – on premise, edge, cloud, in any configuration. All based on the same technology platform – designed to grow and scale with you.
  • Long Term Investment
  • Offer a wider range of deployment options – on premise, edge, cloud, in any configuration.  All based on the same technology platform – designed to grow and scale with you.
  • D2D, D2C, D2D2C
  • SaaS, Appliances, Software, Managed Services
  • Scales to hundreds of TB
  • Barracuda is appliance to cloud only;  maxes out at 3TB
• Technology is designed from the ground up for WAN-based backups. You’ll get higher security, better performance, and greater bandwidth utilization
  • Cloud infrastructure (SAS 70 Type II certified, Barracuda is not)
• Bandwidth throttling – from agent to appliance AND from the appliance to our data center.  Save your bandwidth for your business, not your backups. (Barracuda does not support bandwidth throttling from agent to appliance)
• Has Barracuda provided you with information on how their backups impact bandwidth?
• Failover – If our ERA appliance goes down, you can backup and recover directly from our data center. (Barracuda’s is a single point of failure for file-based backups which are agentless.  If the appliance fails your file backups stop until the appliance is fixed.)
• Security – Offer 6 levels of encryption choices for your backup data AND encryption from agent to appliance (Barracuda does not support encryption from agent to appliance and only provides one option for encryption. Does this meet your security requirements?)

Questions to ask?

Company History/Experience

• Do you want an experienced company safeguarding your data or a relatively new entrant in backup?
• Has Barracuda provided you with any reference customers using their service?
• Can Barracuda provide you with a full array of professional services that provide you with advice on how to design a backup solution, implement one, validate one with DR testing, and assess it if your environment changes?

Security

• Do you want assurance and peace of mind knowing that your backup service uses the industry standard certification for security, redundancy, and production operations?
• Do your auditors demand SAS 70 certification?

Appliances

• Do you have space at each of your locations to store an appliance?
• Do you have the IT resources to manage an onsite backup appliance at all of the locations?

Recovery Options

• What happens if your entire site goes down due to a disaster? 
• Can you meet your RTO with Barracuda? 
• Do you need offsite BMR protection? Have you thought about the complexity of doing 2 backups to protect an entire system – one for data/applications and another for the operating system?

Technology Efficiency

• Has Barracuda provided you with information on how it impacts network bandwidth during backup windows?

Platform/Application Support

• Are you using VMware or do you plan to use virtualization now and in the near future?
• Do you need to protect any of your employees’ desktops/laptops?
• Do you need to protect Solaris, HP-UX, IBM AIX, IBMi, Oracle, or SharePoint?

Reports To: VP of Technology

 

The following document outlines the job description and duties for the position above.

The Systems Administrator will primarily be responsible for the day to day operation and maintenance of the our Clients Desktop support and open systems.  The position will report into the VP of Technology.  The goal of the position is to maintain a high level of availability and end-user satisfaction that meets or exceeds the performance requirements.  Much of this work is currently spread across external vendors and internal staff.  This position also needs to be focused on making the most efficient use of time and the environment.  This should include all of the day to day hands on activities for desktop support, basic server administration and management and escalation of issues with vendors involved in the managed services.  As a part of the managed services offering Penn Treaty will leverage the call desk services provided by Contour.  Those services will augment and provide ready access and tracking for support issues.  This includes extended coverage and backfill for the onsite resource when that resource is not available due to illness or other absence.  This position will also function as an escalation tier for network operations issues.  This will help network operations fulfill their responsibilities in addition to the dedicated desktop support.

He/She will be responsible for the following on a day-to-day basis:

Manage current desktop environment

o   Resolve any hardware related issues

o   Alert and resolve any performance issues and notify end-users

o   Function as an escalation point and remote hands for the call center

o   Manage issues with the vendors

o   Work with the IT staff to respond to and resolve alerts related to systems and/or  integration with the managed services offering.

o   Monitor current environment usage, performance, and availability  

o   Install, configure, test, and implement software and components as necessary on a day to day basis.  Larger projects such as organization wide upgrades amy be identified as out of scope and defined as a separate project.

o   Applicable patch releases and maintenance are included in the day to day responsibilities of the resource.

o   Responsible for planning and coordination of any new systems installation as it relates to the overall offering from Contour

o   Perform any host-level tasks needed to access the systems

Application support

o   Work with application developers and Contour to assist in troubleshooting infrastructure related issues

Backup

o   Maintain proper backup schedule

o   Restore and recover data as requested including the management of snaps and replication

o   Coordinate with off-site storage as necessary

Strategic Planning

o   Capacity planning and forecast growth

o   Identify processes and policies that will improve the overall performance of the project.   Work with management to implement these initiatives

o   Work with IT staff to identify upcoming needs and report back to management

o   Review tools regularly to identify abnormal growth

o   Provide input on vendor proposals

Network Operations

o   Escalation point for server and system related issues.

o   Second Tier advisory role to desktop support call center

o   Validation of tasks completed by the administrators as needed

o   Lead and/or participate in the creation and maintenance of system related policies

Qualified Candidates must have

o    At least 5 years experience in Windows desktop support and customer service

o    At least 1-2 years experience with basic Mac desktop functionality

o    At least 3 years windows server administration

o   Familiarity with basic concepts around Back-up maintenance and Disaster Recovery Procedures.

o   Experience with Help Desk software and ticket management procedures

o   Experience with Trouble ticket escalation and vendor management

o   Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

o   The ability to work independently and provide documentation in compliance with Contour and Customer needs.

Interested Candidates should provide their resume and cover letter to:

Att: Recruiting

640 Freedom Drive

King of Prussia, PA 19406

Or email to:           careers@contourds.com

Company Overview:
EMC’s $165m purchase of Avamar Technologies in 2006 provided the company with valuable de‐duplication technologies that were proven in the remote office/branch  office (ROBO) data protection space. EMC then repackaged the technology into an easy‐to‐deploy hardware appliance (Avamar Data Store) that can back up data at remote offices and funnel it into centralized repositories at the data center.

• Launched Avamar 4.1 in December 2008
• Launched Avamar Data Store Gen 2 in May 2008

Key Products/ Services:
Software: Avamar 4.1

In late 2008, EMC introduced Avamar 4.1. This software‐only product deduplicates data globally and at the source for fast, secure backup and recovery across your enterprise—including VMware environments, remote offices, and data center LANs.

Software: Avamar Virtual Edition for VMware This product is an Avamar server deployed as a virtual
appliance—the industry’s first fully virtualized de‐duplication backup and recovery solution.
Hardware/Software: Avamar Data Store Avamar Data Store Gen 2 is a complete backup and recovery package — including de‐duplication software agents, backup software, (EMC‐certified) physical servers and disk storage, and high availability.

Avamar backup and recovery solutions utilize patented global data deduplication technology to identify redundant data at the source, minimizing backup data before it is sent over the LAN/WAN. With Avamar, you can achieve new levels of data reduction and enable fast, secure backup for your VMware environments, remote offices, and data center LANs. In the process, you’ll reduce backup time, growth of secondary storage, and network utilization.

Supported Platforms:

Client Operating Systems
Supported Application Modules
1) Windows Server 2003: Standard and Enterprise Microsoft Exchange 2000, 2003, 2007 Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server
2) Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, 2000, 2005 Windows XP, XP Professional, Vista

3) Oracle 9i, 10g, 10gR2
4) Red Hat Linux 9.0
5) IBM DB2 8.2.x, 9.5
6) Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 3.0, 4.0, 5.0
7) NDMP (EMC Celerra) DART 5.5, 5.6 NDMP

8)  (NetApp) Data ONTAP 6.5, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, 7.0.6, 7.1x. 7.2

9)Solaris 8, 9, 10
10) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.2, 9, 10

11) VMware Infrastructure  VMware ESX Server versions 3.0.x, 3.5, 3i

12) IBM 5.2, 5.3, 6.1
13) HP‐UX 11.0, 11iV1, 11iV2, 11iV3
14) Mac OS X 10.4x, 10.5x
15) NetWare 6.5
16) Free BSD 6.2
17) Novell Storage Services (NSS) OES 2

Strengths

• Global deduplication at the source and the target minimizes storage footprint
• Granular — Small, variable‐length sub‐file segments guarantee effective de‐duplication
• Broad platform and application support
• High availability and reliability – Fault tolerance across nodes with RAIN architecture improves reliability
• Centralized management allowing users to control multisite backups from a single location and automate policy based management Weaknesses
• Avamar software agents can negatively impact application and server performance (Up to 15%)

Weaknesses

• Must use Avamar branded or EMC‐certified hardware
• The technology was not designed to meet the high performance requirements of enterprises
• Difficult to restore an entire RAIN architecture after a disaster. (lots of deduplicated data scattered)
• Dependent of the node: before backing up / restoring a check is made to verify the deduplicated blocks available.  This can lengthen the time for backup and restores
• Permanent activity on Nodes: Data is permanently moved from node to other

Need help.. I am looking to hire an Sr Systems Engineer that knows the following technologies inside and out:

1) EMC – Clariion, Celerra, Avamar, and ideally knows SYM

2) VMware – ESX, View and SRM

If you know of anyone that has at least 5 years of experience and willing to join a growing company please have them send a cover letter and resume to careers@contourds.com

Thanks

Rocco