Quest vRanger Ups Virtualized Backup And Replication Capabilities

Quest Software has announced a new version of its vRanger Data Protection Platform for virtualized systems that integrates backup and replication by incorporating the capabilities of the company's vReplicator. Other features in version 5.0 include a simplified, lower-cost version of the product aimed at the lower end of the small to midsize business market of 250 or fewer employees, with additional features included in a higher-end vRanger Pro package.

Other new features include native cataloging, which makes it easier for users to find and restore individual files, and improved speed and reduced network traffic through support for Fibre Channel.

Joe Wakeman, an information technology specialist with Webster City Community Schools, a K-12 public school system in Webster City, Iowa, says he was particularly interested in the combination of backup and replication products. "It saves me a lot of time," he says. "I only have to manage one product, rather than two that don't talk to each other."

The combined products, which Wakeman has been using since November, have also saved staff time in managing backups, he adds. The school system has about 1,600 students and 250 staff members, and he is responsible for 800 computers. The organization, which has been using vRanger for about three years, regularly backs up about 20 servers to an off-site location. An active bitmapping feature also lets him save as much as 50 to 60 percent of disk space.

The lines between backup and replication are blurring, with users setting up "tiered recovery" systems in the same way that they have set up "tiered storage" systems, where some data is more important than others, says John Maxwell, VP of data protection products for the Aliso Viejo, Calif., company. vRanger and vReplicator use the same binary code for their replication functionality, Maxwell says.This summer, Quest expects to release version 5.2, which will incorporate a virtual appliance to the replication engine in a VMware server, followed by similar functionality for backup by next year, according to Maxwell. While Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor is on the roadmap, it is not a priority, he adds.

Other new features include file-level recovery for Linux (it was already available for Windows); support for Network File System, which means that network attached storage devices can be used as targets for backup and replication; and support for File Transfer Protocol repositories.

Barb Goldworm, president and chief analyst for Focus LLC, a Boulder, Colo., consultancy, says she was particularly interested in the cataloging feature, due to its potential for improving performance. The catalog adds value because it helps users recover files more quickly. It works by allowing users to store information about the files during the backup for fast recovery later, without slowing down the backup itself, says Goldworm.

The product is available now and has been in limited release, with 700 customers, for the past three weeks. vRanger Standard starts at $399, while vRanger Pro starts at $699. vReplicator will continue to be sold separately for the rest of the year for $299.

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