Data Backup Digest

The team at CloudBerry Labs has always maintained a focus on cloud-based storage and backup solutions within the public sector. In their latest effort, meant to enhance the functionality of their existing software, the team unveiled CloudBerry Backup 4.0, which offers block-level backup of the most popular cloud storage providers, including the likes of Google, Amazon, HP, Microsoft, OpenStack and more.

Furthermore, CloudBerry Backup 4.0 even offers block-level data backup for bare metal restore (BMR) and system state files. Such backups are not constrained by specific operating system requirements, and, as a result, they can be completed much quicker than conventional backup means. Block-level backup works by backing up only the parts of files that have been recently modified, thereby drastically reducing the amount of time that is necessary to complete a full system backup.

Those who do not use BMR or system state backups can still benefit from increased speeds offered through CloudBerry's new multithreading capability, which utilizes parallel threads to backup and restore data quicker and more efficiently than before.

Users of MS SQL-based servers are also in luck, as the development team with CloudBerry added in increased support in the way of Filestream and transparent data encryption, also known as TDE. Transparent data encryption works to maintain data confidentiality by targeting physical files for encryption as opposed to the data itself. Filestream is able to effectively store various unstructured objects, including digital images and documentation.

Alexander Negrash, CloudBerry Lab's dedicated marketing director, explained the benefits of combing bare metal restore with block-level backup protocol. He was quoted in a recent interview as saying: "Bare metal restore coupled with block-level backup significantly improves the performance of the overall backup process. Bare metal images are comparatively large, and the most significant bottleneck for cloud-based backup is network latency. Block-level backup will only send changed portions of the backed up images to the cloud, thus improving backup and restore performance."

The recent interview with Negrash continued, as he spoke candidly about the future of cloud computing as well as growing security concerns. He said: "Cloud-based backup will be even more commonplace than it is today and will eventually become more of a hybrid backup model, with intelligent policies that will rule which data will be available locally, and which will be available in the cloud. To address this concern we’ve created a client side encryption capability with encryption keys owned by the customer."

Specific pricing options of CloudBerry's new software vary depending on the user's exact needs and system specifications. The Windows-based desktop edition, meant for workstations, is priced at $29.99, while Windows Server edition is available at $79.99. CloudBerry's Bare Metal Edition, which includes support for system state archives as well as bare metal restoration, is available at a price of $119.99 for Windows servers and $149.99 for MS SQL servers. Finally, the Microsoft Exchange edition of CloudBerry Backup 4.0 is available at a price of $229.99, while the Enterprise Edition, which is considered the complete package of functionality, is currently available at a price of $299.99.