Dell unveils  AppAssure Replication Target VM for Microsoft Azure Marketplace

Dell Software has announced the availability of its first-ever AppAssure™ Replication Target VM for Azure, giving AppAssure customers a simple, cost-effective method for replicating backups to the cloud. The new offering simplifies backup retention, archiving and recovery by creating a VM replication target for AppAssure backups in the Azure Cloud. Offered in the Azure Marketplace on a “bring your own license” basis, the AppAssure Replication Target VM for Azure enables organisations to leverage the cloud to better comply with company, industry, and government archive and retention requirements. The new offering also gives customers a simple alternative to costly and complex secondary and co-location sites, while providing a range of flexible options for recoveries of any size, from single files to entire systems.

Configurable, extended backup retention and archiving in the cloud

Existing or new instances of AppAssure or the AppAssure-based DL Series Backup and Recovery Appliance can replicate directly to the AppAssure Replication Target VM once it is deployed and ready in Azure. Benefits to customers include:

· Efficient, customisable backup retention – Replication is WAN optimised and built on incremental block-based forever architecture, delivering efficient utilisation of bandwidth. The VM can be configured to retain replicated backups for customisable intervals independent of the source configuration. Replicated backups are immediately accessible, and customers can perform object-level recovery from any replicated snapshot.

· Reliable archive creation – The AppAssure Replication Target VM for Azure supports cloud archiving for long-term retention. AppAssure already features a cloud connector that automatically integrates cloud storage into the retention process. Now, in addition, backups on the AppAssure Replication Target VM can be automatically archived to Azure and accessed if necessary for recovery.

· Flexible recovery – Customers can use a variety of convenient recovery methods and tools, ranging from the AppAssure Local Mount Utility to the Microsoft Azure Import/Export service, depending on the amount of data to be recovered and the urgency of the recovery. Because all replicated backups are immediately accessible, data can quickly be recovered.

A single solution for reliable backup, replication and recovery

The new Replication Target VM for Azure is just the latest enhancement to Dell’s award-winning AppAssure offering. An advanced data protection technology that unifies backup, replication and recovery in a single, easy-to-use software solution, AppAssure enables organisations to restore operations after an incident almost instantly, with a recovery time objective of just minutes. With AppAssure, customers can perform automated recovery testing and verification of backups, restore a single file, message, or a complete machine, and recover from disasters by creating virtual standby VMs.

Now, with the ability to easily create a VM replication target for AppAssure backups in the Azure Cloud, customers can augment their existing backup strategy by quickly, easily and affordably creating an archive strategy for their long-term retention needs.