Guide Helps Enterprises Choose The Best Data Storage Solution

With the ever-changing needs of the data backup market, new data access and protection solutions continue to evolve. With so many product options currently available, it might be hard to choose between the best depending on company needs.

STORServer recently released a guide, called “How to Choose an Enterprise Backup Appliance,” detailing the backup appliance selection process. Whether a company needs a backup appliance or a collection of software and hardware to meet their data storage needs, the report offers insight on hardware and software considerations, key features, manufacturer support criteria, and other important factors.

“Not all backup appliances — enterprise or small office — are the same,” according to STORServer VP John Pearring in a recent Business Solutions article. “Customers must choose wisely based on the parameters we’ve shared in order to get the best cost, solution, and protection for their data.”

The guide covers specific considerations to keep in mind when choosing a data backup solution, ranging from whether the server is for enterprise or department use, hardware and software considerations, features of the appliance, and support from the manufacturer. An article on the STORServer site goes into more detail on these required features. The following are a few primary considerations:

• Cloud support remains critical, as it gives companies the ability to take advantage of various technologies available on the public, private, and hybrid clouds. In addition, cloud support options apply to every most aspects of backup storage solutions.
   
• With virtual machines (VMs), an integral part of today’s data backup solutions, virtualization has become an important part of maintaining a healthy environment for data storage. This includes implementing dynamic reporting, threat alerts, and a multitude of virtualization options into any console used as a data storage solution.
   
• Another essential part of any backup solution: the way it handles deduplication. By decreasing the amount of redundant data, a backup storage solution’s capacity can be greatly increased, saving companies money on storage space.

Included in the guide is the STORServer Solution Wizard that can help guide your customers through the process of choosing solutions that are right for them.