Speaking about built-in features, VMware is now going to support its own IP-based WAN Replication to enable SRM protection of virtual machines. This technology, otherwise known as "Host Based Replication" (HBR) will be available next year, and will offer the ability to recover a protected VM with up to a 15 minute RPO. That is totally great news, because this brings the SRM message, and its appeal, to the masses! After its launch, no longer will "SRM" or "DR" be considered as luxury services that only Enterprise companies can afford to acquire.
Also, remember the days where it seemed crazy to replace a production physical server with a virtual machine? What happened over time, and why? Well today, I meet customers who still think that shipping backup tapes to Iron Mountain via trucks is "DR", and that solutions based on IP replication are just too dangerous and risky. I would associate these customers' doubts with the fear of the unkown. And the unknown is cured with education and awareness. What better way is there to educate a customer on a new trend/features than by making that feature readily accessible and easily testable, right at his fingerprint, with no additional resource or time investment? Thanks to HBR, SRM's popularity will increase rapidly, and soon enough, the standard for RPO will no longer be "once a day." Even if a customer can survive with a 24-hour RPO, why not aim for better RPO when you can essentially get that for free or nearly free?
Likewise, regarding backup for VMware environment, there was a hole that needed to be filled. Essentially, backup was too complicated for non-Enterprise customers, and many people wanted to do away with backup tapes, by keeping backups on disks. But most backup solutions needed 2 components: A data mover (ie. backup software), and a target device (ie. Tape Drive, Disk Arrary, etc...), adding complexity and unnecessary TCO for small environments. VMware took a stab at the issue, and came up with VMware Data Recovery (VDR). With VDR, you just configure a virtual appliance, and you are all set within minutes. You get a clean/simple backup and recovery interface, and the engine leverages the vStorage API for Data Protection, VMware Snapshots, and Changed Block Tracking. VDR can protect up to 100 VM's per VDR appliance, a pretty good number for small to medium size environments. It is VDR's simplicity that will make many people realize that backup is easy, and that the days of tape backup (at least in a virtualized environment) are numbered. It is by the same token that people may start getting higher expectations from their backup solution for virtualized environments.
So with VDR and HBR, VMware has got it all covered, and you will never need any 3rd party vendor to provide a solution anymore, correct? WRONG. By providing VDR and HBR, VMware is simply making a strong proposition that BCDR should be a "right" and not a "luxury." And by creating this new "demand," its raising new awareness to "luxury" services, which 3rd party vendors can provide, for more demanding applications and virtual machines. 1st class vs 2nd class citizens...
This is where FalconStor rips all of the benefits of VDR and HBR. Let VMware do all of the demonstration, education, and talking. Then let the masses adopt these new concepts and technologies, but leave them hungry for more! And more is what FalconStor delivers, more scalable BCDR solutions, better RPO and RTO, and more retention.
