ExaGrid provides backup storage with data deduplication and is designed to run behind a wide variety of third-party backup applications. ExaGrid’s approach allows users to save on storage costs, while also delivering 3 times the backup performance, and up to 20 times the restore and VM boot performance, compared to other approaches on the market.
Fastest Backups for the Shortest Backup Window
ExaGrid provides advanced and aggressive data deduplication, matching the high deduplication ratios in the industry of 10:1 to as high as 50:1 data reduction, with an average of 20:1, depending on retention periods and data types. However, ExaGrid understands that data deduplication is highly compute intensive and should not be performed during the backup window as the deduplication will slow down ingest performance and, as a result, will lengthen the backup window.
ExaGrid provides a unique disk landing zone in each appliance where backups are written directly to disk so that the compute-intensive data deduplication process doesn’t impact ingest speed. This approach provides the fastest backup ingest rate of any other deduplication solution. ExaGrid uses “adaptive” deduplication to deduplicate and replicate data to the disaster recovery (DR) site during the backup window (in parallel with the backups) but not inline between the backup application and the disk. This unique combination of a landing zone with adaptive deduplication provides for the fastest backup performance, resulting in the shortest backup window as well as a strong disaster recovery point (RPO).
ExaGrid provides full appliances in a scale-out system. Each appliance has landing zone storage, deduplicated repository storage, processor, memory, and network ports. As data volumes double, triple, etc., ExaGrid doubles, triples, etc. all required resources to maintain a fixed-length backup window. If the backup window is six hours at 100TB, it is still six hours at 300TB, 500TB, 800TB, etc. Expensive forklift upgrades are avoided, and the aggravation of chasing a growing backup window is eliminated.
Highest Performance for Backups
- Fastest backup performance for the shortest backup window by writing directly to a disk landing zone, avoiding computeintensive inline data deduplication
- Backup windows kept permanently short as data grows by adding full servers (with processor, memory, disk, and
bandwidth) in a single scale-out system
Fastest Restores and VM Boots for Instant Recovery
- Fastest restore and tape copy performance from the most recent backup kept in its whole form. No reassembly from small blocks and large hash tables is required.
- Fast VM boots for instant recoveries from a high-speed landing zone, which maintains a non-deduplicated copy of the most recent backup. This approach avoids the time-consuming data rehydration required when using solutions that only store deduplicated data.
Most Cost-Effective Solution with No “Forklift” Upgrades
- Scalable next-generation architecture with full appliances provides plug-and-play expansion. To add an ExaGrid appliance, you simply plug it in and let ExaGrid’s scale-out software virtualize the backup capacity pool.
- Multiple appliances allow full backups per appliance of 3TB, 5TB, 7TB, 10TB, 13TB, 21TB, 32TB, 40TB, and 63TB. Appliances can be mixed and matched with up to 32 appliances in a single scale-out system, allowing you to pay as you grow. Newer appliances can be added to older appliances in the same system to eliminate product obsolescence. With thirty-two 63TB appliances, a single system can support 4PB of usable storage and can ingest a 2PB full backup.
- 50% lower total system cost up front vs competing systems. Over time, the total system cost is also 50% lower because the costly “forklift” upgrades associated with a first-generation front-end controller/disk shelf architecture are eliminated.