CA ARCserve r16 tops CommVault Simpana 9

CA Technologies announced that CA ARCserve® has topped CommVault® Simpana® 9 in every category of a recent comparative review, again earning the Network Testing Labs (NTL) “World Class Award” for best data protection and business continuity.

The review, commissioned by CA Technologies, carefully examined the capabilities of CA ARCserve and CommVault Simpana around image-based backup, file-based backup, replication/high availability and usability.

“CA ARCserve r16 is the clear winner of this review,” said Barry Nance, president of Network Testing Labs, who has evaluated thousands of hardware and software products for publications like Computerworld, BYTE Magazine, Government Computer News, PC Magazine, Network Computing, and Network World. “It is our choice as the better answer for organizations needing quality backup/restore as well as maximum high availability and replication.”

Details:

http://www.arcserve.com/us/About-Us/Recent-News/Press-Releases/2012/CA-ARCserve-r16-Tops-CommVault-Simpana-9-in-Comparative-Product-Review.aspx

Ahsay Released a Proxy Redirector (AhsayPRD) for MSPs

Ahsay Proxy Redirector (AhsayPRD) is designed for customers and partners who are willing to host multiple branded AhsayOBS instances on one physical backup server hardware.

The AhsayPRD redirects the incoming internet traffic calling to eg: OBS1.ahsay.com or OBS2.ahsay.com through a specific port defined in the AhsayPRD configuration file.

As AhsayOBS is not resource demanding, setting up multiple AhsayOBS instances on one hardware allows you to fully utilize the power of that hardware.

Only one operating system license is required now, as all AhsayOBS instances are running on the same operating system. Therefore, you can save a great deal of expenditure on purchasing multiple operating system licenses.

Moreover, you only need one IP, as routing to the individual AhsayOBS instances can be done through the use of server ports. Thus, spending on purchasing multiple IPs can also saved.

If the multiple AhsayOBS instances you intend to use can be under a same domain, only one SSL certificate is required. Thus, spending on purchasing multiple SSL certificates can be saved.

Individual AhsayOBS instances can have their own brandings, including branded AhsayOBS, AhsayOBM, AhsayACB and AhsayRPS applications, branded reports, customized settings, automatic updating of AhsayOBM and AhsayACB, etc. It thus allows a service provider to set up different AhsayOBS instances with different brandings for their resellers effortlessly. Moreover, as each AhsayOBS instance can have its own domain name, each reseller can have its own branded AhsayOBS for offering its own braned online backup business.

As you can add new AhsayOBS instances anytime, it provides you with the scalability for the expansion of your backup system in the future.

Details: http://www.ahsay.com/jsp/en/home/index.jsp?pageContentKey=ahsay_products_ahsayprd

VMware Showcases Advancements in End User Computing at VMworld 2012

At VMworld 2012, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, previewed the alpha version of the VMware Horizon Suite, a new platform that will offer a flexible corporate workspace in the cloud for mobile workers to connect from anywhere using any device. VMware also demonstrated how the combination of VMware View and Wanova Mirage™ will enable customers to transform the legacy Windows desktop for the cloud era.

“Migration to Windows 7 and 8, bring your own device (BYOD), and the cloud are challenging IT organizations with new complexities and risks,” said Boaz Chalamish, senior vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “VMware’s continued investment and innovation in end-user computing will help IT organizations free the desktop, redefine the corporate workspace and embrace a new way of working in the post-PC era.”

Introducing the Horizon Suite: The Platform for the Mobile Workforce
As IT organizations struggle to manage devices, applications, data and users in the post-PC era, they need solutions that will help them evolve from managing devices to managing user experiences across multiple devices. Today, VMware demonstrated the alpha of the VMware Horizon Suite, showcasing how it will help customers deliver the multi-device workspace and give end-users secure access to applications and data from anywhere.

The VMware Horizon Suite will bring together technologies from Project Octopus, Project AppBlast, ThinApp, VMware Horizon Application Manager and VMware Horizon Mobile into a truly integrated management platform for the mobile workforce. The VMware Horizon Suite will provide a flexible platform that uniquely combines the principles of identity, context and policy to separate personal and business workspaces, enable consistent access to applications and data across any personal device.

Through a central Web management console, the VMware Horizon Suite will allow IT to customize a service catalog for all company data and applications. Horizon Suite will understand a user’s attributes and environment (device, location and connectivity level) and enforce policies across applications, data and desktops. This will allow IT to deliver Windows, Android, iOS, Web and SaaS applications in a single workspace and give end-users self-service access to applications and data from anywhere. Horizon Suite alpha will also allow end-users to securely access and share their data and files from any device.

“The dramatic influx of mobile devices and applications is quickly subverting existing IT policy and management,” said Brett Waldman, Senior Research Analyst at IDC. “Modern solutions will need to have an integrated approach that holistically manages users, applications and devices to satisfy radically changing requirements to be well accepted by today’s IT organizations.”

VMware View and Wanova Mirage: Centralized Desktops for the Mobile Workforce
As workers become increasingly mobile, IT must provide anywhere, anytime access to the traditional Windows desktop. With the recent acquisition of Wanova, VMware and its partner community can now offer centralized desktop management solutions that address the requirements of IT organizations to help them transform legacy Windows desktops into a service:

Managing virtual and physical desktops – Hosting desktops in the datacenter using VMware View comes with many benefits including simplified systems and application management, increased security and control, and higher availability and agility. The addition of Wanova Mirage extends the benefits of managing desktops in the cloud by also allowing local system execution on physical desktops and laptops. Mirage clones the images of the endpoints in the datacenter and runs them locally. This gives customers all the benefits of centralized management and recovery while allowing users to work offline and preserve an uncompromised user experience. Together, these two solutions can support enterprises comprised of any combination of task or knowledge workers.
View “Rapid Desktop” program gains momentum – Today, Cisco, Dell, HP, and Intel join the growing eco-system of OEM, technology and channel partners that are helping to develop and sell VMware View appliances. These easy-to-deploy VDI appliances host between 25 and 500 virtual desktops that can be provisioned quickly, making them ideal for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and scalable for larger organizations.
New VMware View solutions – VMware today introduced two new solutions designed to help IT administrators best architect their environment and ensure all components selected work together for quick managed desktop deployment. VMware View Business Process Desktop and Branch Office Desktop have been tested in labs to ensure product interoperability and performance and are supported with reference architectures, tools and services from VMware and VMware technology partners to minimize guesswork around VDI.
“Delivering desktops as a cloud service from the data center using VMware View® makes centralized endpoint management simple and easy,” said Prasad Calyam, research director of networking and virtualization, Ohio Supercomputer Center/OARnet, Ohio State University. “VMware’s expanded desktop capability using central image management for local execution with the acquisition of Wanova Mirage™ will offer another way to support mobile workers in an organization.”

Pricing and Availability
The beta version of Horizon Suite is expected to be available in Q4 2012.

Details: http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-vmworld-enduser-082812.html

Acronis Brings Fast, Flexible and Efficient Disaster Recovery and Data Protection For Diverse Environments in New Release of Advanced Unified Platform

Acronis, a leading provider of disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today announced an advanced, flexible unified platform for data protection and disaster recovery with its latest release of Acronis Backup & Recovery®. Acronis’ innovative unified platform can grow and develop with the dynamic needs of enterprise networks, while reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) and delivering a faster, more efficient and comprehensive data protection strategy.

The advanced unified platform of Acronis Backup & Recovery® enables customers to purchase licenses for only the agents and application support they need today, with the ability to access more functionality ‘on demand’ as their environment changes. This can dramatically reduce the management burden of procuring, learning and integrating additional products as networks evolve, thereby reducing time and cost with one solution that can be managed across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

“The fast pace of change within a corporate environment is introducing new challenges for disaster recovery,” said Dave Russell, research vice president, Gartner. “Big Data, storage virtualization, cloud-based backup and a continued reliance on tape and disk means that IT organizations need to respond quickly to user demands for system and data availability. Moving systems and data securely between multiple platforms without extended disruption to employee productivity is a mandatory requirement today.”

Acronis is also addressing the increased adoption of cloud infrastructure for storage optimization by introducing disk-to-disk-to-cloud staging into its unified backup and recovery platform. Automated disk-to-disk to-cloud backup shortens the backup window for live physical and virtual machines and simplifies management of both destinations. With Acronis Backup & Recovery, IT administrators can now get the benefits of both local and cloud backup in a comprehensive, unified experience.

“We launched Acronis Backup & Recovery in June 2011 as a single solution for hybrid enterprise environments,” commented Dmitri Joukovski, vice president of product management for Acronis. “Today, the volume and velocity of corporate content creation and mobile computing adoption are introducing new data challenges for IT organizations, and, as a result, uncomplicated and flexible solutions for data protection and storage optimization across multiple environments are in demand. The integrated, yet modular approach of Acronis can give IT organizations the confidence that whatever network development they may face tomorrow, easy access and availability of their protected data, no matter where it resides, can be achieved.”

The new functionality upgrade also includes granular recovery for Microsoft® Exchange  and the option to buy support for Microsoft® Exchange Server, in addition to the support for Active Directory®, SQL Server® and SharePoint® applications relied on by enterprises worldwide, that are already included within the Acronis Backup & Recovery® unified platform.

Acronis Backup & Recovery is a unified platform from which an organization can centrally manage data protection and disaster recovery tasks for physical, virtual and cloud environments from a single management console, and move data between environments quickly and easily. This can offer a dramatic reduction in management overhead and TCO, as the platform can manage Windows® and Linux, and all major hypervisors including Red Hat® Enterprise Virtualization, VMware® vSphere™, Windows® Hyper-V™, Citrix® and Parallels®, and integrates with Acronis Cloud storage in one installation. By using same technology in all environments, Acronis is one of the few vendors who enable the recovery of machines to dissimilar hardware, and between physical and virtual environments.

Details: http://www.acronis.com/pr/2012/09/05-09-51.html

True Image 2013 by Acronis Brings the Power of the Cloud to Home Users

Announced today, True Image 2013^™ by Acronis^®, the newest version of its award winning disk-based backup product, now includes easy web-based access to files and folders stored in the Acronis cloud. To get immediate access to their important files even when not using a PC or laptop, users can download a free App, available from the App Store^(sm) or Google Play onto their iOS or Android mobile device. This latest version of True Image 2013 by Acronis also includes support for the Microsoft^® Windows 8 operating system due to be released this fall.

Leveraging ten years of innovation in disk imaging technology, Acronis has expanded the limitations of traditional backup products by adding enhanced file synchronization and file sharing that allows users to access the most recent version of a file, whether it is on a PC, USBs or NAS, or the Acronis cloud. If a change is made in one location, it is automatically updated in other locations where the Acronis software is installed. With a subscription to Acronis True Image Online, users are also able to share files with others directly from Windows Explorer or via an application on a mobile device, either publicly or privately.

“Last year we pushed the market forward by introducing file synchronization to disk-based backup and recovery,” commented Dmitri Joukovski, vice president of product management at Acronis. “That feature was very popular amongst our users, and now we have enhanced it and expanded the capabilities through mobile device enablement. Our customers are early adopters of technology and appreciate the innovation and mobility that Acronis is bringing to their networks. Our customers know that they always have access to their most up-to-date file versions – whatever happens, whenever and wherever they are.”

True Image 2013 by Acronis is designed to be easy to install and easy to use for the general user, but also offers features for those who have more advanced needs. It provides system and file level backup including incremental and differential backups, virtual hard disk support and, with the True Image 2013 by Acronis Plus Pack, the ability to recover operating systems to dissimilar hardware.

The standard features to simplify and speed up backup and recovery times include:

• Acronis^® Non Stop Backup™:  Automated incremental backups
• Acronis^® Startup Recovery Manager^®:  F11 re-boot, even if the operating system has failed
• Acronis^® SecureZone^®: secure partition to store a disk backup file on a system drive.
• Time Explorer: See screenshots of exactly how a system looked at the moment of backup for trouble shootingAcronis Extended Capacity Manager: works with 2+TB drives – even if the operating system doesn’t.Govt Standard encryption: Keep files secure with 128, 192 and 256-bit encryption support
• Set&Forget™:  Configure the backup schedule and automate protection
• Acronis Try&Decide^®: Immediately roll back to previous settings if a user doesn’t want to accept a change
• Acronis Universal Restore™:  Available in Plus Pack option – restore an operating system to dissimilar hardware.

Pricing and availability

True Image 2013 by Acronis is available through select retailers and online at

MSRP $49.99

True Image 2013 by Acronis Plus Pack add-on is available online at and through retailers at MSRP $29.99

This enables users to restore the backed up image to dissimilar hardware, regardless of make, model or installed components.

Acronis True Image Online subscription is available to buy online at $49.99 per year, or $4.99 per month. A free one month subscription trial is also available.

Details: http://www.acronis.com/pr/2012/08/28-13-36.html