With increasing amounts of data come increasing amounts of data backup responsibility.

Omdia has just released its latest report titled, “Protecting and Recovering Data in the Cloud Era 2022-23.” Within, you’ll find useful information about the backup market that can aid decision-makers when evaluating backup vendors in the space. The report details the major players in the space and ranks their overall market presence against customer experience and capability.

The report analyzes 8 of the top providers of backup solutions so those looking for backup solutions can be prepared when it comes to decision-making time.

You are welcome to read the report yourself, but in the meantime, here are some highlights:

Omdia’s View of the Backup Market

Data has become a form of currency for organizations in the new digital world. Just as you would put gold in a safe, organizations should place data protection at the top of their priority list. However, data can reside in many different places such as on-premises, in remote locations, in cloud environments, in cloud-native infrastructure, or in a multi-cloud environment. 

Data protection best practices are evolving and have introduced the need to back up all data to some extent, not just critical data. Backup technology has also evolved from simply duplicating data to much more sophisticated ways of ensuring data protection.

Omdia notes that most of the vendors in this report have the major backup features present to varying degrees. What differentiates the vendors is how they carry out those basic features in terms of simplicity, flexibility, and completeness. Some even extend into data management, posing more vendor-to-vendor differentiation, which could prove useful in the decision-making process.

The report emphasizes simplicity when evaluating vendors. They say, “Companies can no longer afford to lose even little bits of data if this data was important enough to protect in the first place. Overlaying all these requirements increases the need to simplify the deployment and management of data protection.”

Product Capability Subcategories

Most vendor offerings check off the major data protection boxes a valid vendor needs to offer a good product. Where Omdia tries to differentiate the vendors is in the sets of use cases. For example, one vendor might be more appealing to a healthcare provider handling personally identifiable information because of the implementation details.

The report explores the following subcategories:

Copy Capabilities

The launch point for backups is their ability to make copies of data and send those copies to disparate backup repositories.

Recovery Capabilities

A backup should supply the organization with a secure copy of its data and be able to get backup copies when needed.

Operational Management

Complete backup simplicity is a must-have for organizations and allows non-specialists to operate the backup.

Reporting Management

Comprehensive reporting provided the organization with much higher visibility into its data so it can use its data for competitive advantage.

Deployment Coverage

A key component of a backup solution is it must be platform-agnostic and be able to operate in all environments.

Product Integrations

The maintenance of a robust and stable API set is key to workflow automation and third-party software interaction since the organization is likely using other solutions for other aspects of the business.

Hybrid Cloud

Diversifying against data loss is critical and the need to place backup copies of data both locally and remotely are important in a hybrid cloud world.

Data Security and Ransomware

Not only should an organization be focused on data prevention but should proactively be taking measures against malicious data-focused activities such as ransomware.

Omdia Names Micro Focus a Leader

Omdia recommends having Micro Focus on your shortlist if you would like to work with a smaller company that still has a broad feature set and provides a solid user experience in customer support and professional services.

Micro Focus Data Protection was strongest in deployment coverage, scoring a 67%. Omdia considered Micro Focus’ deployment options ideally suited for an enterprise customer by providing choice and flexibility. Data Protector and Data Protector for Cloud Workloads are typically deployed either on-premises or on a supported operating system in a virtual machine. For cloud deployments, if the underlying operating system deployed in the cloud-hosted virtual machine is supported, then Data Protector or Data Protector for Cloud Workloads have the flexibility to be hosted in any cloud environment. In addition to these options, customers can use any approved partner of Micro Focus to ease deployment. Omdia also considered that the on-premises option is not an afterthought but is a fully supported capability and is valuable for organizations wanting to keep their data under their control. Micro Focus Data Protection enables these on-premises installations to be deployed and managed efficiently.

Micro Focus’ second strongest sub-category is reporting management, scoring 66% due to the fact it utilizes artificial intelligence. AI built into the Data Protector Reporting Server enables Micro Focus to deliver intelligent capabilities that deliver real benefits to organizations. Benefits you can act on. For example, predictive analytics shows administrators' and operators' future capacity and performance planning information so key decisions can be made before problems happen. This capability uses historical and planned activity to show when and how much change is to be expected. Early insight also allows for corrective steps to be initiated before the change becomes a real issue.

Micro Focus’s third strongest sub-category was copy capabilities scoring 64%. Omdia likes the fact that Data Protector and Data Protector for Cloud Workloads are complementary solutions and when used together, provide a complete solution for hybrid data center protection. Data Protector safeguards a wide array of file systems, database platforms, enterprise applications, and virtual machines hosted on VMware or Hyper-V. Data Protector for Cloud Workloads further extends the backup capabilities of Data Protector to support Microsoft 365 services such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Teams, etc. Data Protector can even serve as an alternative for OneDrive.

Data loss can materially damage an organization’s reputation and its ability to do business. Data Protector delivers secure, compliant backups of all company data from a single management point. Fast restoration ensures operations quickly return to normal, minimizing revenue loss and maintaining reputation.

Read the full report here.

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