Actifio Taps the Cloud for Business Continuity

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What good are cloud backups if organizations have to jump through hoops to get their applications up and running again?

That’s the argument Waltham, Mass.-based cloud storage specialist Actifio is making as it embarks on its new all-in-one approach to data protection and business continuity. After inking a deal with IBM in 2012 to help cloud companies provide backup and disaster recovery services, the company made a splash in 2013 by raising $50 million to enable enterprises to curb runaway storage costs by taking aim at copy data.

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Now, the firm is providing midsized organizations with a one-stop hybrid cloud backup and business continuity solution called Actifio One. “What we are delivering is an unprecedented capability for an IT organization to dynamically extend their data center into the cloud, enabling applications to operate across a seamless continuum of private, hybrid, and public cloud environments,” boasted Ash Ashutosh, CEO of Actifio, in a Feb. 9 blog post.

Following a data center mishap, Actifo One enables IT organizations to fire up their applications in the cloud, minimizing downtime. The solution can also be used to temporarily migrate applications to the cloud during periods of high demand or make the transition permanent.

“Today we have finally decoupled the ‘Data’ from the ‘Datacenter,’ and freed it to be located, accessed, and used anywhere, instantly,” Ashutosh said.

Actifio One supports Windows and Linux servers, VMware, Hyper-V and all major databases, including Oracle and Microsoft SQL server, according to the company. Based on the company’s storage capacity sparing Virtual Data Pipeline technology, the product also encrypts data in motion (optionally at rest) and features auditing capabilities that allow organizations to review who accessed their data.

A small software download enables the functionality locally and can be deployed in minutes, claims the company. Meanwhile, a browser-based portal provides failover and failback and allows administrators to manage their environments. This approach not only reduces IT overhead and expenditures for midsized enterprises, it gives Actifio the ammunition to battle bigger rivals.

“This is a technology not previously accessible to medium-sized companies, enabling them to replace several different data protection and management tools, and Actifio expects its Actifio One service will help it win more customers against incumbent competitors like EMC and VMware,” said a company spokesperson in an email to InfoStor.

After helping large enterprises wrangle their data and trim their storage costs, Actifio is looking downstream for growth, remarked Ashutosh in his post. “Actifio One increases the size of our total addressable market, which will help us grow faster longer.”

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InfoStor. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.