Vendor Landscape: Cloud Backup
Match cloud economics with on-premise reliability.
Info-Tech Research Group 1 Introduction
The Cloud Backup Vendor Landscape is full of startups that are innovating and iterating. However, best-in-class solutions do exist.
This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You: IT leaders and storage managers tasked with Define what distinguishes enterprise-class selecting an offsite, or cloud-based, backup cloud backup from consumer-grade solutions. solution. Make sense of how cloud backup vendors Any organization looking to reduce capital differentiate themselves from competitors. expenditure and administrative burden on Shortlist cloud backup vendors based on backup storage, enhance disaster recovery which best align with your business capabilities, or simply looking to learn more requirements. about cloud backup vendors.
Info-Tech Research Group 2 Executive Summary
• The enterprise cloud backup market is still very nascent, with the oldest participating player being founded in 2005, and most being founded after 2008. There are several basic features that define an enterprise-class cloud backup solution though, and the future for the cloud backup space looks bright.
• Among the products evaluated, CTERA, TwinStrata, and Nasuni took top honors and were named Champions. The solutions evaluated provide terrific value for what‟s offered, with appropriate solutions available for small, medium, and large businesses alike between the three vendors.
• However, there are scenarios where solutions from other vendors are more appropriate, so defining business requirements, and aligning that with the use cases presented is still an important step in the nascent, but burgeoning, market.
Info-Tech Research Group 3 Defining enterprise cloud backup: less reliance on the Internet, which improves the end user experience
Though cloud backup vendors Info-Tech spoke to mentioned competing against Mozy Pro and iDrive, these are not business-ready options.
• In a recent survey, conducted by Info-Tech Research Group, respondents indicated they had almost two times more “Complete confidence” in backup solutions that replicated to the cloud vs. those that backup directly to the cloud. The same respondents expressed more overall confidence in cloud replication solutions than disk-to-disk arrays.
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Cloud Direct Tape Library D2D VTL Cloud D2D Array Replication
Complete High Moderate
• An enterprise-class cloud backup solution must include an on-premise cache of recently and frequently accessed files to mitigate any issues due to inconsistent Internet connectivity.
Info-Tech Research Group 4 Market Overview
How it got here Where it’s going
• Evolved from traditional online backup - where • Commoditization of core cloud backup features is you paid for an allotment of storage capacity and causing new service providers to differentiate backed up servers directly to the Web to on-site themselves by specializing in niche markets. appliances that compress, deduplicate, and cache data before replicating to the cloud. • You‟ll be able to access files from anywhere, on any device, making enterprise-class cloud backup as easy • Enterprise cloud backup solutions are defined by to use as consumer-grade services. the ability to keep an on-site cache of frequently and recently accessed data, while completing • A simplification of backup architectures as cloud incremental backups or snapshots to the cloud. storage, both internal and external, matures. The use of tape for archiving will continue to decline as • Currently a wide open space where few vendors enterprises re-assess and refresh their backup have more than a few dozen clients, but those strategies. clients generate sizeable revenue. • Cross-cloud mirroring will become an industry standard feature within the next two years, lending additional reliability and redundancy.
Overall, disk-to-disk backup is the most popular backup target, with 62% of survey respondents saying they had recently implemented new backup capacity. However, the number of businesses deploying cloud backup was 15%; equal to the number of companies deploying tape.
Info-Tech Research Group 5 Cloud Backup Criteria & Weighting Factors
Product Evaluation
The solution provides basic Features and advanced feature/functionality.
The five year TCO of the solution is Affordability economical.
The solution‟s dashboard and reporting tools Usability are intuitive and easy to use.
The delivery method of the solution aligns with Architecture what is expected within the space.
Vendor Evaluation
Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will Viability be around for the long-term.
Vendor is committed to the space and has a Strategy future product and portfolio roadmap.
Vendor offers global coverage and is able to Reach sell and provide post-sales support.
Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the Channel channels themselves are strong.
Info-Tech Research Group 6 The Info-Tech Cloud Backup Vendor Landscape™
Champions receive high scores for most evaluation criteria and offer excellent value. They have a strong market presence and are usually the trend setters for the industry. CTERA
Emerging Players are newer vendors who are starting to gain a foothold in the TwinStrata marketplace. They balance product and StorSimple vendor attributes, though score lower relative to market Champions. Nasuni Innovators have demonstrated innovative product strengths that act as their competitive advantage in appealing to niche segments of the market.
Market Pillars are established players with Zmanda very strong vendor credentials, but with more average product scores. Panzura
For a complete description of Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape™ methodology, see the Appendix. CoreVault
Info-Tech Research Group 7 Every vendor has its strengths & weaknesses; pick the cloud backup vendor that best suits your needs
Product Vendor
Overall Features Usability Price Platform Overall Viability Strategy Reach Channel
CoreVault
CTERA
Nasuni
Panzura
StorSimple
TwinStrata
Zmanda
For an explanation of how Info-Tech Harvey Balls are calculated, please see the appendix.
Info-Tech Research Group 8 CTERA, Nasuni, and TwinStrata offer the best value
What is a Value Score? On a relative basis, CTERA maintained the highest Info-Tech Value Score of the vendor group. Vendors were indexed against CTERA‟s The Value Score indexes each vendor‟s product Champion performance to provide a complete, relative offering and business strength relative to their view of their product offerings. price point. It does not indicate vendor ranking.
Vendors that score high offer more bang for the buck (e.g. features, usability, stability, etc.) than the average vendor, while the inverse is true for Average Score: 71.6 those that score lower.
Price-conscious enterprises may wish to give the Value Score more consideration than those who 100 are more focused on specific vendor/product 95 93 attributes. 83 70 The cost estimates were generated using a real-life scenario provided to Info-Tech Research Group by 45 a client. For more information, see slide 30. 16
CTERA TwinStrata Nasuni Zmanda StorSimple Panzura CoreVault
Sources: 1. To calculate the Value Score for each vendor, the affordability raw score was backed out, the product scoring reweighted, and the affordability score multiplied by the product of the Vendor and Product scores.
Info-Tech Research Group 9 Every vendor in Cloud Backup meets the Basic Features, but who goes above and beyond in the areas that matter to you?
The Basic Features What Does This Mean?
The products assessed in this Vendor Data is encrypted while being transmitted to, 256-Bit Encryption LandscapeTM meet, at the very least, the and at rest in, the data center. requirements outlined as Basic Features. Incremental Only changed files or blocks are transmitted Backups after the first backup. All of the vendors go above and beyond the outlined Basic Features, most even do so in Standard Access Non-proprietary access methods like REST multiple categories. This section aims to highlight Methods APIs, WebDAV, and FTP must be available. the products‟ capabilities in excess of the criteria The service stores (and can automatically listed here. File Versioning delete) previous versions of files. SAS 70 Type II The data center storing your data has Certification successfully passed a SAS 70 Type II audit. Scheduled Backup frequency can be scheduled along Synchronization with a set start and end time. Storing frequently and recently accessed files Local Cache on-premise to reduce bandwidth usage.
If Basic Features are all you need from your Cloud Backup solution, the only true differentiator for the organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs like cloud server mountable volumes, Web-based file sharing,
Info-Tech Research Group 10 Basic Features aside, vendors were evaluated on their individual advanced feature offering
Features What We Looked For Mirroring across geographically disparate data Cross-Cloud Mirroring centers or multiple cloud storage providers. Restoring servers without an underlying OS Bare Metal Restore and applications installed. Advanced features scoring methodology: File Sharing Web-based file sharing via a hyperlink. Recognizing duplicated files and storing just Deduplication one copy. Info-Tech scored each vendor‟s features Compressing the data before backup to Data Compression offering a summation of their individual scores reduce bandwidth utilization. across the listed advanced features. Vendors Cloud Server Cloud storage volumes can be mounted by were given one point for each feature the Mountable Volumes cloud servers for quick DR capability. product inherently provided. Some categories Restore From Ability to initiate restores from remote were scored on a more granular scale with Anywhere locations via a graphical user interface. vendors receiving half points (see Partial Access From Ability to access files from remote locations functionality criteria). Anywhere via a graphical user interface. Backing up and storing files in their native file Native File System system, without proprietary protocols. Agentless Backing up devices without software agents Architecture on each device. Service Level A contract with service availability guarantees. Agreement Controlling upload and download speeds to Bandwidth Throttling manage bandwidth usage.
Info-Tech Research Group 11 TwinStrata
Champion Overview Product: CloudArray • TwinStrata has completed three rounds of funding, most Employees: 25 recently completing a debt round in February 2011. Headquarters: Natick, MA • Venture capitalist sits on the board of directors, lending Website: twinstrata.com credence to the startup. Founded: 2007 Presence: Estimated Run Rate: $1M Strengths • Cloud storage volumes can be attached to cloud server instances for additional disaster recovery capabilities. • Physical and virtual appliances supported; virtual appliances run on ESXi, XenServer, Hyper-V, and Amazon EC2. • Can back up to public and private storage clouds. • Can be provisioned as a storage tier for internal applications.
Challenges • Additional fee for 24x7 support. • Not capable of cross-cloud mirroring, bare metal restore, or file sharing.
Priced between $10,000 and $25,000
Info-Tech Recommends: Mid-sized and large businesses that need to replace their NAS/SAN, especially those with highly virtualized environments, should consider TwinStrata.
Info-Tech Research Group 12 TwinStrata has produced a compelling alternative to traditional storage that can replace your NAS or SAN
TwinStrata is attempting to provide a flexible solution that helps move the mid-market off traditional storage, and doing it well. • TwinStrata offers a virtual appliance, or one of four individual physical appliances for provisioning a local cache. The virtual appliance uses storage allotted to it from a NAS or SAN, and the physical appliances support unlimited storage, with an artificial maximum of 50PB. • TwinStrata supports backing up to both public and private cloud storage, with support for seven different cloud storage providers. The appliances are capable of block-level, file-level, and application-specific storage methods.
• TwinStrata‟s products can be controlled through a Web-based interface, API, or command level interface. Local and cloud storage volumes are provisioned from the same applications, making the appliance easier to administer. • TwinStrata does not perform all of the billing, leaving customers to deal with separate invoices from each of the cloud storage providers used.
Ideal Profile:
Mid-size and large enterprises that have outgrown their existing NAS or SAN, or have recently re-assessed their backup architecture and settled on cloud backup. Also organizations that wish to store their data outside of the United States, thanks to support for PEER 1‟s cloud storage service.
Info-Tech Research Group 13 CTERA
Champion Overview Product: Cloud Gateway and Portal • CTERA was founded by Liran Eshel and Zohar Kaufman, who Employees: 20 previously started SofaWare Technologies. Headquarters: Petach Tikva, Israel • It has completed Series A and Series B funding rounds, both Website: ctera.com funded Benchmark Capital. Founded: 2008 Presence: 10 Distributors Strengths • Built-in deduplication, compression, and bandwidth optimization. • Portal can backup to your own private cloud or public clouds. • Files can be accessed remotely, in native file format, and restored to different machines in case of disaster. • Files can be shared with others via a hyperlink.
Challenges • A C200 or C400 Cloud Gateway is required; there is no virtual appliance available. • Cannot currently operate at the hypervisor level. • Lack of direct sales can deter small and mid-sized businesses, Priced between $10,000 and $25,000 pushing them to competitors.
Info-Tech Recommends: With a reasonable price point, consumer-type sharing features and trusted cloud providers, CTERA is easy to recommend for small and mid-sized businesses, and branch offices.
Info-Tech Research Group 14 CTERA’s solution is the most comprehensive in the marketplace, and worth a look from any SME
CTERA is leading on advanced cloud backup features and has laid out a strong roadmap ahead. • CTERA offers multiple pieces of hardware for setting up a local cache: CTERA C200 or CloudPlug, C200 and C400. The C200 and C400 are self-contained C400 Appliance devices, and the C400 supports up to 12TB of raw storage capacity. • CTERA Portal provides administration and configuration of the local appliance, and snapshots to cloud storage providers. The Web-based interface is easy to use, providing insight into storage capacity use by individual devices.
• CTERA does not have its own data centers, instead backing up your data to the cloud storage provider of your choice. • You receive one bill from the backup service provider, not from each cloud storage provider in use.
Ideal Profile:
Small and mid-sized businesses that have outgrown their existing NAS or SAN, have recently re-assessed their backup architecture, and settled on cloud backup, or do not currently own a NAS/SAN.
Info-Tech Research Group 15 Nasuni
Champion Overview Product: Filer • Nasuni‟s founders have their history as CTOs and with Employees: < 50 traditional storage vendors. Headquarters: Natick, MA • Nasuni has raised $23M in funding from venture capital firms Website: nasuni.com like Flybridge, North Bridge, and Sigma Partners. Founded: 2009 Presence: 42 Customers Listed on Website Strengths Raised $23M in VC Funding • Variety of top-tier cloud providers to choose from. • Full Active Directory integration. • Built-in WAN optimization to compress before transport. • Automatic software upgrades without IT intervention. • One of the least expensive solutions.
Challenges • Performance in large enterprise environments is less than stellar. • Can initiate a restore from anywhere in the world, but cannot access files via the Web interface remotely. Priced between $10,000 and $25,000 • Virtual appliance can only scale up to 2TB on VMware. • Not suitable for backing up virtual machines or databases.
Info-Tech Recommends: Nasuni positions itself as a replacement for file servers, and should only be used this way. A strong focus on unstructured data, native file formats, and low pricing makes it very suitable for this role.
Info-Tech Research Group 16 Nasuni has clear focus of where its solution fits in the cloud backup market, and makes no bones about it
If you’re looking to expand or replace file servers, Nasuni is worth a look even at a departmental level. • Nasuni provides a virtual appliance pre-configured to provide 128GB of Nasuni Filer on-premise cache, and can be scaled to provide up to 2TB on VMware and 16TB on Xen. If the cache is full, the Filer begins removing files from the cache. These files are moved to your cloud storage provider until they‟re accessed again. • Nasuni currently supports six different public cloud storage providers. The Filer encrypts all files while on-premise, in-transport, and after hitting the cloud.
• Nasuni‟s interface is available through a Web browser, where local and cloud storage volumes are provisioned. The interface has been given a design that‟s easy to use, with an emphasis on quick, at-a-glance statistics through a colorful dashboard. • Nasuni performs all the billing, so you have only one invoice to pay.
Ideal Profile:
Businesses that are not interested in using cloud backup for snapshots of virtual machines, or block-level storage. Nasuni Filer is ideal for small and mid-sized businesses replacing their NAS, or purchasing a NAS, for storing unstructured data only, and providing access to those files from remote locations.
Info-Tech Research Group 17 StorSimple
Innovator Overview Product: Hybrid Cloud Storage • StorSimple has raised funding from notable venture capitalist Employees: 45 firms like Redpoint Ventures and Index Ventures. Headquarters: Santa Clara, CA • StorSimple‟s founders, Ursheet Parikh and Guru Pangal, come Website: storsimple.com from backgrounds in WAN optimization and storage. Founded: 2009 Presence: $21M VC Funding Strengths • Can use multiple cloud storage providers concurrently, and synchronize volumes across storage clouds. • Automatic tiering across solid state disks, server attached storage, and cloud storage. • Certified for Windows Server 2008 R2 and VMware Ready. • Volumes optimized based on type of data stored.
Challenges • One of the more expensive solutions available. • Bare metal restore only available for VMware images, file sharing, restore anywhere and access anywhere.
Priced between $25,000 and $50,000
Info-Tech Recommends: StorSimple is mostly targeted at mid-sized and large enterprises, and any company with large content (i.e. CAD drawings). It‟s well suited to the task and hits most of the advanced features desired.
Info-Tech Research Group 18 StorSimple is currently the only vendor that supports cross- cloud mirroring, setting the trend
Cross-cloud mirroring will become an industry standard, but StorSimple has more enterprise-level features in store. • StorSimple provides a choice of several physical appliances, with StorSimple 1010, 5010 capacities ranging from 10TB to 200TB. Recently and frequently or 7010 Appliance accessed files are cached on-premise, on one of two storage tiers. Older and infrequently accessed files are “archived” to cloud storage. • StorSimple currently supports four different public cloud storage providers, as well as private cloud storage. All data is encrypted while on-premise, in-transport, and after hitting the cloud. Customers have full control over the private key. • Administration of StorSimple‟s appliances can be performed via a web- based interface or through storage management consoles on a desktop OS. • StorSimple does not perform all of the billing, leaving customers to handle invoices with each cloud storage service used.
Ideal Profile:
Mid-sized and large organizations with Windows and VMware environments, feel more comfortable synchronizing backups across multiple cloud storage providers, and aren‟t concerned about providing access from remote locations (outside of an office or VPN).
Info-Tech Research Group 19 Zmanda
Market Pillar Overview Product: Amanda Enterprise • Zmanda‟s solutions are based on the source code from the Employees: 50 Amanda open source project. Headquarters: Sunnyvale, CA • It was founded in 2006 and has completed three rounds of Website: zmanda.com funding, raising $16M. Founded: 2006 Presence: 2,000+ Customers Strengths • Specialized software agents for Windows servers, Linux servers, MySQL, Oracle, vSphere/ESXi, etc. • Files are stored in their native formats on Amazon S3.
Challenges • Each software agent must be purchased separately, driving up capital expenditure and operating expenses for yearly subscriptions. • Can only backup to Amazon S3 currently. Priced between $25,000 and $50,000 • 24x7 support is only available with a Premium subscription.
Info-Tech Recommends: Small and mid-sized businesses with heterogeneous environments, and content with using Amazon as the cloud storage provider, should look at Zmanda‟s Amanda Enterprise solution.
Info-Tech Research Group 20 Zmanda is one of the top solutions for heterogeneous environments thanks to heavy agent specialization
That specialization comes at a price though, with each agent having a yearly subscription fee attached to it. • Zmanda provides a virtual appliance that‟s capable of live backups of Amanda various applications like Exchange, SharePoint, and MySQL. Enterprise Unfortunately, each of these applications requires an agent installed, all of which are purchased independently at roughly $300 per year, per agent. • Zmanda only supports backing up to Amazon currently. Info-Tech believes support for other cloud storage providers is coming soon.
• Administration of Zmanda can be done from a desktop client or Web- based interface. The desktop client looks like a mix of antiquated, cluttered prompts paired with modern graphics. The templates provided for scheduling are not very user friendly. • Zmanda performs all the billing, so you only have one bill to pay.
Ideal Profile:
Small, mid-sized, and large businesses with heterogeneous environments (Linux, Windows, Oracle, etc.), do not require deduplication, and are set on using Amazon as their cloud storage provider.
Info-Tech Research Group 21 Panzura
Emerging Player Overview Product: Alto Cloud Controller • Panzura targets large, distributed enterprises with storage Employees: 26 appliances that synchronize designated data with each other, Headquarters: San Jose, CA and also to cloud storage providers. Website: panzura.com • The number of employees has grown by 140% in the last year. Founded: 2008 Presence: Raised $18M From VCs Strengths • Ideal for distributed organizations with a need for collaborating on files, or making data available across locations. • Supports public and private cloud storage, and backing up to tape. • Available as a physical or virtual appliance.
Challenges • Not designed for small and mid-sized businesses. Panzura is clear that its market is Fortune 1000, globally distributed companies. • Difficult to identify existing customers or channel partners. Priced between $50,000 and $100,000 • Product has only been in the market since June 2010.
Info-Tech Recommends: Large, distributed organizations should look at Panzura to solve cross-site data synchronization problems, while enabling cloud backup. Not a solution to be considered by single-site businesses.
Info-Tech Research Group 22 Panzura has a very clear market of large enterprises that need to help foster collaboration mixed with cloud backup
Panzura’s target market will likely see its solution as very compelling, especially those with many changes to data on Alto Cloud Controllers.
• Panzura‟s solution is available as either a physical or virtual appliance. Panzura Alto Cloud Because of the nature of the solution and its target audience, it includes Controller a feature Panzura calls Collision Control, which locks a file for editing if (Physical or Virtual) another user has it open. • Panzura currently supports four different cloud storage providers, and is clear about its focus: enabling LAN-speed file access despite the distance between offices.
• Panzura‟s administration interface contains a colorful mix of graphs on various data points, such as data throughput, system disk status, and a bandwidth summary. It also provides a quick view on how much storage is used and available, and how much has been saved thanks to deduplication.
Ideal Profile:
Large, globally dispersed organizations that are looking to create a private storage delivery network that backs up to a public or private storage cloud. Small businesses will likely find the appliances too expensive, though some mid-sized companies may find Panzura meets their needs.
Info-Tech Research Group 23 CoreVault
Emerging Player Overview Product: Cloud Backup Online • CoreVault is an offshoot of a telecom provider that was looking Employees: 17 to solve its own backup issues. Headquarters: Oklahoma City, OK • Its agentless solution discovers targets on the network to be Website: corevault.com backed up, backs up to disk, then replicates to the cloud. Founded: 2005 Presence: Endorsements from bar and medical Strengths associations in 15 states • Built-in deduplication and continuous data protection capabilities. • Software agent is FIPS 140-2 certified (PDF link). • Capable of storing unlimited retentions and bare metal restorations. • Snapshots can be restored to CoreVault‟s vCloud service as cloud servers.
Challenges • Two data centers, but both located in Oklahoma. • Multiple storage tiers that lead to differing restoration times and service costs. Priced between $50,000 and $100,000 • No service level agreement; only available to some clients. • Antiquated and cluttered user interface.
Info-Tech Recommends: At such a high cost, only companies that require high security, like FIPS 140-2 software and ISO 27001 certifications, should consider CoreVault‟s solution.
Info-Tech Research Group 24 CoreVault’s solution is expensive for a reason – it’s highly secure, and built for organizations that need that security
CoreVault is a traditional online backup provider that has restructured as a cloud backup provider, and includes a managed service approach. • CoreVault provides software that is installed on a designated server, which backs up designated data and then replicates it to CoreVault‟s cloud storage service. • CoreVault is very focused on highly regulated industries - like financial, healthcare and legal - thanks to the FIPS 140-2 certified software CoreVault agent. It mostly targets organizations in the fifteen states where it Software Agent receives endorsements from professional associations.
• CoreVault‟s administration software is cluttered and looks antiquated, with wizards for creating backup sets and retention rules that could use a user experience overhaul.. • CoreVault performs all the billing, so you only have one bill to pay. This is offset by having to use CoreVault‟s own cloud storage service, which is the most expensive service reviewed in the Vendor Landscape.
Ideal Profile:
Small and mid-sized companies that require strict security certifications, like FIPS 140-2 and ISO 27001, both of which CoreVault has obtained, and clearly differentiates it from competitors.
Info-Tech Research Group 25 Focusing on use cases causes different Champions to rise to the top of the Cloud Backup Vendor Landscape
Different use cases bring different vendors and solutions as the best fit to the table. Don’t ignore your needs when looking at the budget. Mount Storage to Cloud IaaS Servers 1 Use Case
Unstructured Data/NAS Replacement 2 Private Cloud Support
3 Global, Distributed Enterprises
*Separate product, not evaluated
Info-Tech Research Group 26 If you prefer to keep backups in a private storage cloud, only a few solutions fit your requirements
Organizations with strict compliance requirements, but that want to take advantage of cloud economics, still have a choice.
Private Cloud 1 Use Case
2 Private Cloud Support 3
Info-Tech Research Group 27 There are many other solutions available, but those from Zetta and Gluster did not meet the Basic Features criteria
Zetta’s direct-to-cloud approach does not provide the level of availability and redundancy required, and Gluster substitutes the filesystem entirely. • Zetta provides a software agent-based solution that • Gluster‟s virtual appliance is targeted as a backs up directly to its own data centers. replacement for your existing NAS, and not as a • Files are stored in native file format, fees charged are cloud backup solution. exclusively based on storage usage, and you can • You can install Gluster as a bare-metal storage maintain up to a seven year version history. software appliance, and on Amazon EC2 with EBS • Zetta even provides one critical advanced feature storage, and set this configuration up for geo- identified, cross-data center mirroring between their replication across the Internet. east coast and west coast data centers. All this at very • It works as a do-it-yourself cloud backup solution for aggressive pricing. organizations that would prefer . provides a software agent-based solution that backs up directly to its own data centers. Ultimately, Zetta was excluded due to the lack of an on-premise cache. Companies cannot rely on the Internet to provide access to multi-gigabyte Due to Gluster‟s focus as a NAS replacement, it files within a reasonable amount of time. was excluded from the Vendor Landscape. It‟s a very innovative solution though and appears to have a bright future in the storage market.
Info-Tech Research Group 28 Appendix
Info-Tech Research Group 29 Cloud Backup Total Cost of Ownership Scenario
How we calculated the cost Example graph from Cloud Storage TCO Calculator
• An Info-Tech client provided a scenario for comparing the cost of cloud backup solutions in order to determine the value provided. • The scenario presented included an existing SAN, being used primarily as a file server, which requires costly upgrades to increase the capacity. The current usage is 1TB out of the 1.3.TB capacity. • Storage growth is projected to be 10% year over year, which was also factored into the five year cost calculation. • Info-Tech Research Group used the Cloud Storage TCO Calculator to account for all possible costs including hardware, software licensing, data transfer and storage usage. Cloud backup solutions vary widely in cost Source: Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group 30 Methodology – Vendor Landscape & Harvey Balls
Info-Tech Research Group‟s Vendor Landscape market evaluations are a part of a larger product selection solution set, referred to as a „Select Set.‟
From the domain experience of our analysts, a vendor/product shortlist is established. Product briefings are requested from each of these vendors, asking for information on the company, products, technology, customers, partners, sales models and pricing.
Our analysts then score each vendor and product across a variety of categories. These scores are then weighted according to weighting factors that our analysts believe represent the weight that an average client should apply to each criteria. The weighted scores are then averaged for each of two high level categories: vendor score and product score. A plot of these two resulting scores is generated to place vendors in one of four categories: Champion, Innovator, Market Pillar, and Emerging Player. Analysts take the individual scores for each vendor/product in each evaluation category and convert those to a scale of zero to four whereby exceptional performance receives a score of four and poor performance receives a score of zero. These scores are represented with “Harvey Balls”, ranging from an open circle for a score of zero to a filled in circle for a score of four. Harvey Ball scores are indicative of absolute performance but are not an exact correlation.
Individual scorecards are then sent to the vendors for factual review, and to ensure no information is under embargo. We will make corrections where factual errors exist (e.g. pricing, features, technical specifications). We will consider suggestions concerning benefits, functional quality, value, etc; however, these suggestions must be validated by feedback from our customers. We do not accept changes that are not corroborated by actual client experience or wording changes that are purely part of a vendor‟s market messaging or positioning. Any resulting changes to final scores are then made as needed, before publishing the results to Info-Tech clients.
Vendor Landscapes are refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.
Info-Tech Research Group 31 Methodology – Value Index
Info-Tech Research Group‟s Vendor Landscape market evaluations are a part of a larger product selection solution set, referred to as a „Select Set.‟
The Value Index is an indexed ranking of value per dollar as determined by the raw scores given to each vendor by analysts. To perform the calculation, Affordability is removed from the Product score and the entire Product category is reweighted to represent the same proportions. The Product and Vendor scores are then summed, and multiplied by the Affordability raw score to come up with Value Score. Vendors are then indexed to the highest vendor by dividing their score into that of the highest scorer, resulting in an indexed ranking with a top score of 100.
The Value Index calculation is then repeated on the raw score of each category against Affordability, creating a series of indexes for Features, Usability, Viability, Strategy and Support, with each being indexed against the highest score in that category. The results for each vendor are displayed in tandem with the average score in each category to provide an idea of over and under performance.
The Value Index, where applicable, is refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.
Info-Tech Research Group 32