Simpana® Software:
Perfect Protection for Virtual Servers — A Better Virtual Reality

With the capability to protect hundreds of virtual machines in minutes, virtual machine auto-protection, and the scalability to protect thousands of virtual machines, Simpana® virtual server backup software sets a new standard for virtual server data protection.

  • Protect hundreds of virtual machines in minutes
  • Scale seamlessly to provide end-to-end protection for thousands of virtual machines
  • Automatically discover and protect virtual machines
  • Granular file and full VM recovery
  • Capture multiple recovery points in a day with minimal production impact
  • Create fast secondary and DR copies using embedded deduplication

Simpana® Software is the Data Management Solution that Bridges your Virtual and Physical Environments

Simpana® software is the only data management and data protection solution that delivers end-to-end data protection for both physical and virtual server environments. Simpana software delivers the performance, manageability and scalability to give you the confidence that you can run even your most mission critical applications on virtual servers and be assured that your data is fully protected and easily recoverable when needed.

With high server consolidation and the resulting increased data density per physical host, the old protection strategy of moving data from one place to another simply does not work. No matter how efficiently done, there is nearly not enough time to copy all the data and yet allow the short RPO and RTO that businesses increasingly demand. A data center redesign based on virtualization requires a rethink of data protection strategies. CommVault offers an award winning single data management solution that bridges the gap between the legacy data protection methodologies of the past and the modern data protection techniques that help realize maximum efficiencies in the virtual data center.

Protect 500 Virtual Machines in 17 Minutes using SnapProtect™ Technology

Simpana software and SnapProtect™ for Virtual Server Agent delivers the performance needed to protect even the largest, most demanding virtual server environments. Create rapid-fire, persistent, recovery copies leveraging hardware-based snapshot capabilities built into modern storage systems. These hardware snapshot-based recovery copies are created in minutes with minimal impact on production systems, thus allowing protection for even the largest virtual environments. Real tests have demonstrated that 500 virtual machines can be protected in 17 minutes with this approach, providing unparalleled scale.

  • Create Protection copies in minutes – minimal load on production servers and virtual machines.
  • Multiple recovery points per day – recover to a few hours ago, not to last night’s backup, minimizing data loss and risk to your business.
  • Storage Independent1 – supports wide variety of storage arrays for operation consistency across storage types.

Secondary DR copy with embedded Deduplication

Retaining too many snapshots on storage arrays can be expensive in terms of disk utilization. Simpana software solves the problem by allowing contents of selective hardware snapshots to be copied over to a low cost disk in deduplicated form for DR and long term retention.

  • Leverage vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP) – create secondary deduplicated copies from select snapshots, with zero impact on production physical hosts or virtual machines.
  • Change Block Tracking (CBT) – create incremental backup copies from snapshots using CBT.
  • Achieve long term retention – create deduplicated copies on cloud storage or on tape in independent version form.

The Most Advanced Recovery Capabilities Anywhere

Recover individual files, or entire VM-images from the same single-pass backup operation. Granular recovery is available from a snapshot copy or from the secondary copy on disk2.

Leave No Virtual Machine Unprotected

Simpana software delivers Auto-Discovery and Auto-Protection capabilities to ensure all virtual servers are guaranteed protection. Lacking auto-discovery, users waste a lot of time daily, trying to identify new VMs, locate their owners, determine protection needs and add them to the appropriate policy.

With Auto-Discovery, new VMs are automatically assigned to an appropriate protection policy based on pre-defined business rules. A default catch-all policy protects even those VMs that do not meet the pre-defined criteria. This Configure and Forget flexibility allows administrators to be highly productive and focus on solving real business problems, rather than wasting time on unproductive tasks.

Support for multiple virtualization platforms

Simpana software supports protection of virtual machines on the following virtual platforms3

  • VMware vSphere
  • Microsoft HyperV
  • Citrix XenServer

1 Refer to CommVault Books Online for a list of storage arrays protected with Simpana SnapProtect for VSA

2 Granular Recovery available for Windows NTFS and Linux ext3 file systems

3 All features are not available on all virtual platforms. Please consult CommVault Books Online for details.

 

CommVault Press Releases on Virtualization

01-Feb-2012

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CommVault Unveils New Simpana Software Innovations

24-Jan-2012

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CommVault Expands the Power of Industry-Leading SnapShot Technology with New IntelliSnap Connect Program

20-Dec-2011

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CommVault Launches New Enterprise Consulting Services Practice

13-Dec-2011

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CommVault's Annual IT Storage Spending Predictions Survey Reveals Budget Uptick as Organizations Grapple with Data Explosion

12-Dec-2011

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Kuwait Petroleum Group Pumps Up Data Management and Keeps Pace with Aggressive Business Growth Using CommVault Simpana Software

06-Dec-2011

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IT-Lifeline Embraces CommVault's Seamless Integration with Amazon Web Services to Drive New Cloud-based Recovery as a Service

01-Dec-2011

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CommVault and Simpana Software User Denver Health to Share Best Practices for Modern Data Protection at 2011 Gartner Data Center Conference

21-Nov-2011

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Programmed Group Upgrades to CommVault Simpana Software to Improve Data Protection & Disaster Recovery

21-Nov-2011

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CommVault Reaches 15,000 Customer Milestone on One-Year Anniversary of Simpana 9 Software

25-Oct-2011

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CommVault to Discuss Analytics and Data Management at iHT2 Health IT Summit

Published News Articles on Virtualization

10-Jan-2012

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CommVault CEO says Oracle woes are company-specific, Total Telecom

03-Jan-2012

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Data Overload, Cloud Computing Benefit Backup Vendors, Investor's Business Daily

03-Jan-2012

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Managing Data Growth Tops CommVault Storage Survey, NewsFactor.com

28-Dec-2011

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CEO Of Storage Firm CommVault Cautious About 2012, Investor's Business Daily

26-Dec-2011

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CommVault Rolls Out Enterprise Consulting Services Practice, StorageNewsletter.com

21-Dec-2011

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CommVault debuts enterprise consulting services practice , Computer Technology Review

19-Dec-2011

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CommVault Annual IT Storage Spending Predictions Survey, StorageNewsletter.com

14-Dec-2011

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Big Data to cause problems for Enterprise in 2012, NWLinux

01-Nov-2011

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Top 25 Online Data Backup Enablers List, Backup Review

18-Oct-2011

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The cloud washing game: Key functions of a private storage cloud, SearchCloudStorage.com

A complete archive of all CommVault press releases and related news articles can be found by visiting the CommVault Social Media Newsroom.

 

Rethink Virtual Machine Protection and Recovery with CommVault® Simpana® Software

Virtualization Use Cases
Auto Discovery
Virtual Machine Protection
Flexibility Options for Recovery Data

Simpana® 9 software introduces a new, smarter way to think about data protection for the modern data center, giving your business the confidence to know that the data supporting your virtual machine environment is fully managed with little overhead. By assuring the same level of flexibility, recoverability and manageability that businesses have become accustomed to in the physical world, Simpana software encourages the aggressive adoption of a virtualization-based modern data center, even for business critical applications, thus providing maximum returns on investment and helping businesses gain critical operating and cost advantages.

Challenges with Protecting Virtual Machine Data

High Server Consolidation Causing High Data Density Per Host

Increased server consolidation, while desirable for optimal server utilization, leads to a physical host owning a lot more data than before. It is common in a virtualized environment for a physical host to own several TBs of data. As a result, there is not enough time to move all that data AND there are fewer server resources available to apply traditional backup methodologies.

VM Sprawl Causing Uncertainty in Data Protection

New virtual machines are created all the time, usually without the administrator's knowledge. As a result, a lot of time is wasted in manually ensuring VMs are being protected. Critical virtual machines could be at risk of not being protected at all!

Limited Recovery Options

Traditional backup methodologies create a backup copy once a day. In case of data loss, you are limited to recovering last night’s backup. In a fast paced environment recovering an old copy of data could mean the loss of critical business information. Businesses are often forced to keep data images for longer than necessary, only so that they can recover specific files in those VMs leading to wastage of resources. Recovery can often be time consuming and slow.

Manageability and Reporting

Users are often forced to use separate point products for physical and virtual environments, complicating the data protection method. Lack of 360 degree reporting hinders the ability to manage resources effectively.

Rethink Virtual Machine Protection with CommVault Simpana Software

CommVault Simpana 9 revolutionizes how business think about data protection and recovery for virtual environments and shatters constraints that traditional backup and recovery methods impose.

Protect Hundreds of Virtual Machines in Minutes with Minimal Production Impact

With Simpana software, you can be assured your entire environment is protected – regardless of the size. Leverage power of hardware snapshots built into modern storage arrays to create rapid fire, consistent and persistent recovery copies with no data movement and no agents inside the virtual machines. With this method, you can maintain multiple recovery points in a day. Simpana software supports most major storage array vendors, so there is no new hardware to buy. Test have demonstrated that this ground breaking method can protect 500 virtual machines in 17 minutes.

Secondary Copy for Data Recovery and Long Term Retention

Simpana software extends the performance and scalability benefits of hardware snapshot capability by selectively creating deduplication enabled copies on low cost disk. Backups deliver industry best performance and scalability by leveraging the modular node-based deduplication engine architecture, all iside the virtual platform. We leverage the vStorage API for Data Protection and Change Block Tracking for incremental backups of snapshot contents. And Simpana software delivers seamless integration with external cloud storage including deduplication and encryption of data in the cloud.

Automatic Discovery for Guaranteed Virtual Machine Protection

Don’t let Virtual Machine sprawl expose you to data loss! With Simpana software for virtual servers, you can automatically add new virtual machines to protection policy for guaranteed protection. Simpana software goes beyond simply discovering new VMs and applies newly discovered virtual machines into protection policies based on user defined rules. With multiple discovery rules, you gain the flexibility you need with no administrator intervention. Configure once and forget.

Multiple Recovery Options

With Simpana software for virtual servers, you can recover just what you need, just when you need it. You can do so quickly and easily without a lot of extra steps or wizards. You can recover either a full virtual machine image, individual volumes or even single files from inside a virtual machine, all from within the Simpana Console.

Integrated Reporting

With Simpana software for virtual servers, you can run detailed reports based on the contents of each virtual machine. You can run file-level analytics to see a detail view of virtual machine data. And, you can use our file analytics tools to automatically take action (for example, automatically archive files older than 90 days) to further optimize your virtual server environment. All these capabilities are built-in and do not impose any additional burden on your production environment.