Introduction 

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital data, safeguarding your virtual assets has become paramount. OpenText Data Protector emerges as a beacon of reliability, offering robust solutions tailored for diverse environments. From the meticulous Data Protector Express Edition designed for virtualized spaces to the comprehensive Data Protector Premium Edition for extensive data management, this guide outlines the new easy licensing for all Data Protector editions. Whether you're a new customer navigating the Starter Pack or a seasoned professional exploring the Enterprise Suite Edition, this licensing guide is your compass in the complex world of data protection. Join us as we unravel the simplicity of the new Data Protector licensing. 

From complex to simple 

Data Protector used to have quite a complex feature-based licensing model where customers had to buy a base license plus many feature-based add-on licenses. In the buying process customers had no experience as to what feature add-ons to buy for their use case. Resulting in adjustment purchases and changes in licensing after the initial purchase. In the past license cost was also dependent on the infrastructure. Licenses for every server, database server, hypervisor host etc. had to be obtained. 

All in all, a quite complex licensing model that did not guarantee all features for every customer and did exclude new features coming with upgrades that might have been helpful just because the customer hadn’t booked the right base feature. Not to mention a complex renewal process with different terms for different features making it hard to have a precise cost overview. 

The very good news is that licensing has become much easier since then. Customers can choose from 3 clearly defined Data Protector editions and pay according to the data volume to be protected. This is not only much simpler to manage and understand but also in line with how the industry operates. The license models exist in parallel and you are free to choose. Contrary to the market trend we do not force you into costly license model changes every now and then. 

Data Protector Enterprise Suite new licensing benefits 

The benefits of the new licensing model include a scalable, affordable pay-as-you-go model helping with better OPEX management and simple sizing for licenses. Before licensing was very complex and more prone to errors. The new licensing is based on the amount of front-end data protected. Data growth rate yields predictable future costs. With the new licensing it is easier to plan and stay in compliance. Before many licenses had to be purchased separately. Total cost was hard to predict, and compliance was a time-consuming process. The past licensing required to purchase licenses for backup copies. The new licensing offers multiple copies without increased cost. And for features, these had to be purchased separately, now all features are included in the license. Also, new future features coming with new versions will be available to every Data Protector Enterprise Suite licensee having active maintenance.  

Benefits of the new licensing compared to the traditional feature-based licensing: 

* The number of Cell Managers will be limited by the number of 1TB DP Capacity-based licenses 

If you are using the old Data Protector feature based licensing talk to your OpenText sales representative now. We have great offers for moving you from the traditional licensing to the new all-features-in capacity-based licensing.  

Data Protector Editions 

The following is an overview of the new Data Protector editions that all use capacity-based licensing now. 

Data Protector Enterprise Suite Edition 

• Data Protector Enterprise Suite Edition is a capacity license based on the amount of front-end data being backed up. 
• One (1) Data Protector Enterprise Suite Base License is required for suite entitlement. It includes 1 TB of Data Protector (On-Premise) capacity-based license. 
• The license covers all features of Data Protector, including file system backup, application integration, virtualization support, and software encryption. 
• Add-on Capacity Licenses are required for the total amount of front-end protected data. 
• Add-on capacity may be purchased for either Data Protector (On-Premise TBs) or Data Protector for Cloud Workloads (Cloud TBs) 
• Data Protector Enterprise Suite Edition user interfaces provide enhanced reporting capabilities to effectively monitor your backup environment. 

Data Protector Premium and Express Editions 

• Data Protector Express Edition provides socket-based licensing for virtualized environments and includes backup and recovery of virtual machines. 
• Advanced virtualization features such as granular recovery (GRE), power on, live migrate and zero downtime (ZDB) integrations and software encryption. However, file system and application integration agents are only available with DP Premium, and DP Enterprise Suite and not available with DP Express. 
• Data Protector Premium Edition is a capacity license based on the amount of front-end data being backed up. The license covers all features of Data Protector, including file system backup, application integration, virtualization support, and software encryption. 
• Data Protector Express and Premium Edition user interfaces provide enhanced reporting capabilities to effectively monitor your backup environment. The Premium Edition has advanced enhanced reporting. 

Data Protector For Cloud Workloads 

• Data Protector for Cloud Workloads is a stable, agent-less backup and snapshot- management solution for virtual environments and clouds. 
• Provides comprehensive backup for Microsoft 365, containers, and multiple hypervisors, to a diverse set of Cloud storage backup targets. 
• Data Protector for Cloud Workloads operates as a stand-alone solution, or it can be combined with Data Protector. 

The new "DP Enterprise Suite" license model makes all Data Protector functions available for unlimited use. It is based solely on the amount of primary data to be protected and is therefore much easier to plan and control - there are no fixed costs as in the old license model. Any number of data backup integrations can then be rolled out and more / larger backup targets (possibly 3rd / 4th mirror ...) can be used. This increase in flexibility gives more security in the event of a disaster, simplifies the backup process and speeds up recovery. 

The new license model enables a standby/fallback DP cell server to be installed so that it can be used ad hoc in the event of a disaster. You could also set up a "clean room" cell server that can be used for restore tests, data forensics, etc. The rollout for new projects and short-term security requirements will be much easier and license compliance can also be ensured more easily. The previous license investments, which were rigidly tied to individual functions, are transferred to a flexible model through the license conversion, thus ensuring the best possible investment protection - especially as the IT landscape is changing. 

The migration only requires a one-off fee - so it does not lead to an increase in maintenance costs. An adequate growth buffer ensures that the existing environment will not require relicensing in the short term.  

The increase in functions for more data security, the generous license volume in the new license model, the simplification of license management and the investment protection achieved with roughly the same maintenance costs justify the migration fee - especially as it is lower than the costs otherwise incurred for the necessary additional purchases in the old license model. 

Learn more about OpenText Data Protector 

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