All-in-One Backup Appliances for IT Professionals

A backup appliance is a physical device with integrated backup software, storage capacity and preconfigured hardware components. Backup appliances may or may not contain dedupe disks, cloud connectivity or other distinguishing features. However, the key to this product category is having a backup management engine and considerable storage within the consolidated device.

Purpose-built backup appliances (PBBAs) are disk-based storage solutions engineered for storing backed-up data. PBBAs can serve as target systems for data from backup applications or integrated systems with backup software. Many target devices lack their own backup software and are designed to complement other third-party backup applications.

However, in some cases, an appliance may serve as a backup system, a replication target or both. For example, Unitrends systems can be configured for local backup, replication or both, depending on your environment's needs.

PBBAs usually include deduplication, encryption, compression, redundant hardware components and automated setup and maintenance. They focus on protection against malware, hardware failures and natural disasters, making them ideal for data protection and disaster recovery.

The following are advantages of using a PBBA:

• PBBA solutions are a cost-effective way to extend data protection investments without process changes.
• PBBAs can be customized to suit a specific backup requirement.
• PBBAs are plug-and-play storage devices that are ready for immediate use. These devices are easy to set up and manage, with most of them seamlessly integrating with existing architecture.
• These devices include redundant components, like RAID disks, power supplies and network interface cards, to prevent data loss during component failures.
• PBBAs optimize backups efficiently and are dedicated solely to the backup and recovery use case.
• PBBAs are designed to run only backup-related workloads, which minimizes the impact on other servers or devices.s or extract resources from other devices.
• Features like deduplication in backup appliances help reduce storage costs by removing redundant copies of backed-up data.
• Data encryption at rest ensures confidentiality, while role-based access control restricts unauthorized access and data retrieval. This allows only authorized personnel to obtain data or perform certain functions.

Backup appliances typically work by connecting to devices/components on the local network. Pre-installed backup software uses a combination of agents or hypervisor integration to capture data from configured devices. Backup data is stored on the appliance's local storage media. That data can be replicated to another target or restored from the backup appliance as required. Advanced backup appliance solutions offer granular options for replicating or restoring files, folders, volumes or full machine images.

Backup appliances are built to meet your organization's backup and recovery needs, SLA requirements, and BCDR efforts. These devices are powerful, enabling quick access to your data and adding reliability to your backup and recovery processes.

Backup appliances empower quick restoration and recovery during disruptive incidents, like cyberattacks or hardware failures. Today, most organizations use backup appliances to protect mission-critical data and recover from disasters. Modern backup appliances also automate backup-related tasks with intelligent features like snapshots, SLA policies, WAN-optimized replication and recovery testing.

Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting your backups — attempting to disable them from occurring, encrypting them or deleting them entirely. If subsequent attacks on your primary data are successful, you may be forced to pay the ransom.

Backup appliances can play a critical role in thwarting ransomware attacks. They can block physical access, encrypt data, create immutable copies and verify login credentials via access control methods.

All backup appliances are built differently. Backup solution providers implement different approaches that make their products unique. Businesses must be aware of these differences when evaluating a backup appliance. Here are a few criteria that you must look for in a backup appliance.

Ease of use: Look for a backup appliance that is easy to install, manage, use and scale. The right backup appliance comes preconfigured with hardware, software and networking. Hardware components and software should be optimized to work in tandem.

Regulatory compliance: Consider a backup appliance that enables automated regulatory compliance. Efficient backup appliances enable SLA policy automation for backup, archive and retention scheduling. This allows you to meet RTO, RPO and retention requirements.

Saves time: Reliable backup appliances simplify data protection and save time. Unitrends backup appliances help IT administrators save more time on data backups. An intuitive, purpose-built management console lets you quickly and easily search, filter, manage and recover thousands of backups. This helps you save time to focus on other important strategic initiatives.

Saves money: A good backup appliance will help you save a considerable amount of money on data storage. For instance, Unitrends backup appliances come equipped with built-in adaptive deduplication. This combines global and inline dedupe with compression for industry-leading storage efficiency, resulting in reduced storage costs and better retention.

Scalability: Look for a scalable backup appliance to meet current and future business needs, whether by scaling up, out or to the cloud. Unitrends Recovery Series backup appliances are built to scale with your business. Increase your protected capacity by swapping with a larger appliance. Scale out by adding backup appliances within a single site, at remote office/branch office (ROBO) sites or by extending to the cloud.

Robust data protection: Data loss and downtime are among the top challenges businesses face today. The right backup appliance should be able to safeguard data from hardware issues, software issues and malware while also enabling secure recovery. Predictive analytics in Unitrends backup appliances proactively identifies and resolves threats to recovery before they even occur. Self-healing software automatically rectifies VSS errors and other software-related issues. Self-healing technology in appliance hardware reduces disk-drive-related downtime by up to 90%.