ETI-NET looking to beta tight integration between BackBox and QoreStor

Are clouds in your future? As IT professional do you see clouds floating just above your technology horizon? Do you believe they continue to be just out of reach? According to the results of a Gartner survey published November, 2019 and referenced in multiple media channels, “The worldwide public cloud services market is forecast to grow 17% in 2020 to total $266.4 billion, up from $227.8 billion in 2019.”

Even more telling is how, according to Gartner’s Sid Nag, research vice president, “At this point, cloud adoption is mainstream (where) the expectations of the outcomes associated with cloud investments therefore are also higher. Adoption of next-generation solutions are almost always ‘cloud-enhanced’ solutions, meaning they build on the strengths of a cloud platform to deliver digital business capabilities.”

For the NonStop community, with the availability of virtualized NonStop (vNS) there is now the real potential of deploying NonStop far beyond traditional NonStop systems where NonStop in the clouds is possible. Initially, we may see vNS deployed on x86 based servers from vendors apart from HPE where there is expertise in VMware on hand, but in time, this will likely see NonStop running on private clouds. However, when it comes to the expectations of IT for mission critical solutions, then running NonStop on NonStop converged systems remains the primary goal.

When you consider cloud computing, it comes in many flavors – IT can readily leverage cloud-based utilities, routines and development tools. Even complete applications can be found residing on clouds today. However, cloud providers not only are offering up solutions but also the ability to store data. Lots of data and at price points that are extremely competitive.

Archiving historical data to a cloud provider like Azure or AWS is one option, but so too is looking to clouds as a resource supporting the backup of data that otherwise may be transmitted to other, less real-time accessible media.

In recent times, ETI has recognized the potential benefits from doing just this – turning to cloud resources as repositories of data backed up from NonStop systems. To this end, ETI is partnering with Quest and in so doing, working with Quest to integrate BackBox with Quests headline product, QoreStor. If as yet you aren’t aware of Quest or QoreStor, it may be new to you to read about the capabilities of QoreStor:

“Connect to the cloud faster and more easily with QoreStor™ software-defined cloud storage, deduplication and replication. With QoreStor, you’ll reduce storage requirements and costs through content-aware, variable block deduplication, and replicate faster and safer to a DR Site or to the cloud for data archiving and disaster recovery.

“Connect to the cloud faster and more easily with QoreStor. You can lower data protection costs and maximize the return on your IT investment by leveraging virtually any storage hardware, data backup software, virtualization platform or cloud provider”.

At recent Regional User Group (RUG) events, ETI first talked about how ETI had become an OEM partner of Quest for its QoreStore product line.  “We can see it providing value to all of our NonStop customers,” said ETI-NET COO, Sylvain Tétreault. “We believe our customers will be able to improve backup efficiency, reduced storage requirements and costs through content-aware, variable block deduplication, and replicate faster and safer to DR site for disaster recovery and access the cloud for data archiving.

And now, we are pleased to be able to advise the NonStop community that we are finalizing the development of the required connectivity and integration and are preparing a Beta test with one of our customers. We are anticipating this initial test period with the customer to progress through the summer.”

When it comes to connectivity and integration with QoreStore, customers will be able to rely on the same user interface we provide today to configure the BB Virtual Tape Controller (VTC),” said Tétreault, “you will be able to configure the QoreStor. And this is a very important consideration for those customers looking to better integrate what is running on NonStop with services available on cloud providers. “One interface for VTC and QoreStor; simplicity in execution where there will be no need to manually enter complex paths or any other mandatory information required of QoreStor,”

Information about the integration of BB with QoreStore is beginning to surface and it is happening at a time when there is increased interest in not just vNS within the NonStop community but virtual BackBox (vBB). The transition to virtualization is now happening fast and across the global BB community, more customers are testing the vBB or moving forward on implementing vBB.

Being prepared as ETI is today for such a migration only further confirms the decision to partner with Quest was the right step for our customers and it strengthens the role of ETI in all things virtual and cloud related. We are developing the knowledge and have involved a partner best equipped to help our NonStop customers navigate a smooth path to optimal cloud reliance.

Replicating data into the cloud is perhaps the best usage of cloud computing that can be pursued today by NonStop customers. It simply makes a lot of sense to push data to a low-cost resource like the cloud. Should you be interested in knowing more about the work we are doing in support of data, data replication and tapping the benefits on offer from cloud providers, then give us a call or simply email us – we would be happy to talk with you any time. And stay safe; maintain separation, let’s get through this pandemic together!

Said Hini
said.hini@etinet.com (514) 663-0501