Dell stares EMC in the eye, doesn't blink, turns up data protection dial

Dell has added new deduping appliances and updated its Rapid Recovery (AppAssure) and NetVault (Quest) backup software, showing no signs of portfolio retrenchment in the face of the oncoming EMC merger.

In a multi-product release Dell announced:

• Rapid Recovery (rebranded AppAssure)
• • ZeroImpact recovery of systems, applications and data across physical, virtual and cloud environments
  • Rapid Snap for Applications snapshots physical or virtual environments up to every five mins
  • Rapid Snap for Virtual offers agent-less protection of VMware VMs
• Endpoint Recovery - Free Edition
• • For single user Windows clients
  • Has file dedupe and compression
  • Set and forget client device protection scheme
• Faster DR series deduplication appliances with free source-side dedupe and all-inclusive licensing
• • Support 16 backup apps
  • DR4300e has up to 27TB usable capacity and 21TB/hour ingest
  • DR4300 with up to 108TB usable and 23TB/hour ingest
  • DR6300 has up to 360TB usable and a 29TB/hour ingest rate
• NetVault Backup 11 (the acquired Quest SW)
• • Enterprise Windows client deployment manager with automated install for up to 1,000 clients
  • Multi-streaming capability to split backups into smaller, simultaneously executed chunks to increase performance
  • Restartable VMware backups so users pick up where a job left off

Previously, Dell had DR4100 and DR6000 dedupe appliances. The DR4100 had a 2.7TB - 27TB capacity range while the DR6000 scaled up to 252TB of post-RAID capacity. There is also a smaller DR2000v virtual deduping back-up appliance running under ESXi or Hyper-V.

Now extra power comes from the use of 13th generation Dell servers inside the new appliances.

The DR4300e entry-level box is a 2U enclosure with 12 x 3.5-inch disk drives available in 4.5TB (67.5TB logical) and 9TB post-RAID (135TB logical) capacities. A single 4.5TB or 9TB (raw) expansion shelf can be added

The mid-market DR4300 offers double the number of replica targets and memory over the previous model. It uses 2 or 4TB HDDs, which add up to 33 per cent more capacity. The 2U rack-mounted system is available in raw capacities of 18 and 36 TB. You can expand capacity with up to two PowerVault MD1400 expansion shelves in 18, and 36 TB capacities, for a total of 108 TB usable (1.6PB logical) capacity.

The upper mid-market/enterprise DR6300 has a 2U enclosure as well and 12 x 3.5-inch drives again. It comes in four configs, all post-RAID: 18TB (270TB logical), 36TB (540TB logical), 54TB (810TB logical), and 72TB (1.08PB logical). Four expansion shelves can be added, with the same capacity options.

The 16 supported backup apps are:

• Amanda
• AppAssure (archive only)
• ArcServe Backup
• Atempo TimeNavigator
• Bridgehead
• CommVault Simpana
• EMC Networker
• HP DataProtector
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
• Microsoft Data Protection Manger (DPM)
• NetVault Backup
• Oracle RMAN
• Veeam
• Veritas Backup Exec
• Veritas NetBackup
• vRanger

Dell says it has more than 70,000 customers worldwide using its data protection products.

Availability and pricing

Rapid Recovery is available now worldwide starting at $1,199 for new users. A free upgrade for current AppAssure license holders is available. DR4300e, DR4300 and DR6300 are available now worldwide. Pricing starts at $13,000 for the DR4300e, $43,000 for the DR4300, and $87,000 for the DR6300. Endpoint Recovery – Free Edition will be available worldwide beginning in early March. NetVault Backup 11 is available worldwide starting at $1,265. ®