Arkeia Announces New, Best-in-Class Backup Appliances

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Arkeia Software, a leading provider of backup and disaster recovery products, today announced a new generation of all-in-one backup appliances.  The new generation delivers larger internal disk capacity and RAID-6 for more secure local data storage.  The faster network connectivity and integrated SSD contribute to shorter backup windows.  The fully integrated and optimized Arkeia Network Backup v9 software delivers advanced Progressive Deduplication™, integrated bare-metal disaster recovery, and out-of-the-box support for VMware vSphere virtual environments.  The new line of table-top and rack-mounted appliances drives down the cost and complexity of deploying backup infrastructure.

"Arkeia has been a pioneer of purpose-built backup appliances," said Lauren Whitehouse, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.  "The Arkeia appliances remove much of the complexity of purchasing, configuring and managing a backup server, a tape drive, and backup management software.  With embedded deduplication, Arkeia's solution offers a compelling data protection solution for mid-sized companies or remote offices."  

New Appliance Capabilities

Capabilities newly available with these appliances include:

• Increased backup storage.  Usable internal disk capacities from 1TB to 20TB allow more backup sets to be retained on-site for faster data recovery.  The appliances employ RAID-1 and RAID-6 for secure storage of deduplicated data.  Deduplication delivers effective storage that is many times the capacity of internal drives.
• Faster connectivity.  Upgraded network connectivity (10Gbps LAN and 8Gbps Fibre Channel SAN) permits faster backups and shorter backup windows.  Tape device and tape library direct interfaces include eSATA, Fibre Channel, SAS, and SCSI.
• Higher-capacity tape drives.  Internal LTO-4 drives simplify off-site storage for organizations that don't have data volumes that require a tape library.  The appliance seamlessly integrates backup-to-disk and archive-to-tape operations.  
• Integrated SSD.  Solid state drives (SSDs) shorten backup windows by accelerating updates to the backup catalog.  SSD is an ideal storage target for managing the backup catalog's random access workloads.  Lower-cost, sequential-access hard drives are ideal for storing backup sets.
• Integrated vSphere protection.  Arkeia Network Backup protects both physical and virtual platforms, including VMware's vSphere, Microsoft's Hyper-V, Citrix's XenServer, and Red Hat's RHEV.  VMware's VDDK libraries are bundled with the appliance software, allowing vSphere to be protected via the vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP).
• Deduplication.  Arkeia's Progressive Deduplication™ provides any combination of source- and target-side data deduplication.  Deduplication, typically 5x for backup workloads, accelerates backups by reducing the volume of data transmitted over networks.  It also permits longer backup retention periods without more disk storage. Arkeia’s patented Progressive Deduplication delivers higher data compression and faster speeds than fixed-and variable-block dedupe technologies.
• Cloud for off-site storage.  The appliances deliver two solutions for off-site storage of backup sets:  tape and cloud.  The appliances support backup set replication to both private and public clouds, including Amazon S3.

Arkeia Appliance Strategy

Arkeia designs and delivers both appliances and virtual appliances for data protection.  Appliances drive down the costs of deploying data protection solutions by permitting organizations to avoid the complexity of software deployment and to enjoy one true support vendor and only one support contract.  Appliances also minimize the ongoing costs of management and software updates.

"Arkeia appliances are engineered around Arkeia's flagship network backup software, the award-winning Arkeia Network Backup," explains Bill Evans, CEO of Arkeia Software.  "Our engineers tune the integration of hardware and software to make the backup solution easy to deploy, painless to manage, and highly reliable.  Since their initial introduction in 2007, Arkeia appliances have protected the data of tens of thousands of servers worldwide."  

Enterprise-Class Components

Arkeia hardware is enterprise class, providing flash-based firmware, enterprise-class disk drives, and top-quality chassis and power supplies.  Various appliance models have field-expandable disk capacity, offer optional LTO-4 tape drives, and include dual, redundant power supplies.  First-tier technical support is available from Arkeia to ensure that our customers are successful and their data is protected."

Availability and Pricing

Third generation Arkeia appliances—models 120, 220, and 320—are available now.  Model 620 will be available in Q4 2011.  Appliances bundle Arkeia Network Backup and agent software for up to 60 client machines.  Pricing begins at $3,500.  For full specifications visit: www.arkeia.com/backupappliance.

About Arkeia Software

Arkeia Software delivers fast, easy-to-use, and affordable solutions for data backup and disaster recovery. The award-winning Arkeia Network Backup Suite is designed for mid-sized organizations and safeguards more than 100,000 networks for 7,000 customers in 70 countries. Arkeia's integrated solution is ideal for the consolidation of disparate backup products. We protect all major virtual platforms including VMware, Hyper-V, and XenServer—and over 200 physical platforms including AIX, BSD, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS, Netware, Solaris, and Windows. Arkeia delivers software and both virtual and hardware appliances, backing up data to disk, tape, and the cloud. We provide bare-metal disaster recovery, LAN/WAN replication of backup sets, and numerous hot backup agents. Arkeia's unique source-side progressive deduplication technology reduces storage requirements and accelerates backups, especially of virtual environments. Arkeia shipped the industry's first network backup solution for Linux in 1999 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Arkeia and Arkeia Network Backup are trademarks or registered trademarks of Arkeia Software, Inc.  All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Arkeia Software Contact
Jody Scheldt
Communications Manager
+1.760.431.1319

SOURCE Arkeia Software