By Jaspreet
on December 15th, 2009
under Druva Phoenix,News & Events,Technology & Innovation
After long waits and about 4 months of beta program, I am extremely excited to announce the general availability of Druvaa Phoenix v1.0.
The entire team has been super busy to make this happen. And I am sure it would be quite evident when you give it a try.
Reinventing Backup
Phoenix is designed ground-up for remote backups. Here are some of the key product features which make it ultra special -
- Global Source Based Data Deduplication – Over 90% reduction in backup time, bandwidth and storage.
- WAN Optimization – Understands high latency and noisy networks.
- Near Continuous Data Protection – snapshot/restore-points based point-in-time restores. No age-old full, incremental backups.
- Smart Bandwidth Scheduling - Set smart bandwidth limits for each backup schedule.
The Road Ahead
What we currently have is just a platform which will be used to showcase some market changing features -
- Search Based Restore – We missed this feature in v1.0, but should be available in the next v1.2 release
- “Blackbird SR-71“ – A new storage engine with application aware data deduplication. This should be able to match an attachment inside exchange store at New Jersey to a file stored in a file-server at Kent. This should set the standards for backup performance.
- Long Distance Replication – Replicate backed up data over noisy long distance IP networks.
- Advanced Dashboard – The second best reporting dashboard (after Google Analytics).
Application aware Agents - Phoenix currently only comes with generic Windows agent, we plan to introduce these starting v2.0
Useful Links -
I welcome you guys to download a copy and share your feedback !
By Mayank
on November 18th, 2009
under Case Studies,Data Protection
According to the recent study by Ponemon Institute, “Airport Insecurity: The Case of Lost Laptops”, sponsored by Dell, business travellers lose more than 12,000 laptops per week in U.S. airports.
According to the same study, which examined losses at 106 of the U.S.’s largest airports, the top 36 “Class B” airports averaged 286 lost laptops per month, which is about one laptop lost every 2.6 hours at these airports. The study also found that only 66% of the lost laptops were never recovered and about a third of those recovered were reclaimed.
Enterprise data is more dispersed and diverse than ever. And with over 30% corporate data sitting on PCs, administrators can no longer hold the end user responsible for protection of this critical corporate data.
The the above statistics clearly states the need for the following two solution on every single corporate PC -
- Data Protection Solution – Designed for laptops, keeping in mind the mobile workforce
- Disk Encryption and Data Leakage Prevention Solution
Shameless Plug: Druvaa inSync is a simple, fast scalable and solution especially designed for mobile workforce. Learn more here – http://www.druvaa.com/insync/laptop-backup
By Jaspreet
on November 9th, 2009
under Data Protection,Technology & Innovation
Well, first let me confess that inSync v3.1 took much more time than we planned.
We had initially planned to release inSync by July 09 and Phoenix public beta by Sep 09.
In Short -
We are working on a new storage engine codename Blackbird (based on the SR-71 legend). The new engine will use application specific deduplication technology to improve performance and bandwidth/storage savings.
Initially planned for inSync v3.1 and Phoenix v1.0 , this now will be available in next major releases.
The longer version -
For the past two years, we have been doing experiments on various different algorithms for global source based data deduplication. While releasing inSync v2.0 we finalized on chunk based or variable-block based data deduplication, because of the simple fact that it was tough to find similar data blocks at natural block boundaries across different users. We also worked on the performance which gradually improved over time.
While the approach was reasonably accurate, there was a scope of significant improvement. We realized that 90% of the backup data on customer PCs comes from the documents and PST files, hence something totally focussed on PST files can dramatically improve the deduplication performance.
Also, while working on Phoenix, we came across a bigger challenge of finding duplicates across different data sources within the enterprise. We soon realized that simple block based approach will not take us too far. We also realized that most of the vendors use fixed and variable block/chunk based hashing techniques. This works well for them, because they have been treating backups as “byte streams”, and the only way to remove duplicates is fixed or variable size data deduplication.
Looking at various data types and possible ways improve, we could clearly see two fundamental changes in our approach which could bring paradigm shift in data deduplication -
- For accuracy – Application aware data deduplication
- For performance – Hierarchical block based deduplication
Application aware deduplication, can actually pin point duplicates across PST file attachments and normal office documents.
On the PC side, majority of the data is office documents and Email files. This makes it simpler to introduce the new approach, but still a lot of work needs to be done to productise it. For Phoenix, the problem is much bigger and would take some more time to solve.
The new engine should be ready soon. It would be shipped first in inSync v4.0 early next year and then in Phoenix v2.0 . In the next few posts, I will try and get some benchmark data.
By Jaspreet
on October 28th, 2009
under Case Studies,Druva inSync
PC Data growth and concerns surrounding its backup are not new, but some of the new age factors like mobility and ever growing emails have brought an interesting twist to the story. The pace of growth of data is now much more rapid, its location more dispersed and the linkage between data sets more complex. And this is especially true with large financial institutions, which have several “branch offices” and a large pool of mobile workforce.
When we approached major financial institutions in India, we were surprised to find that most of them did not have an end-user backup policy in place especially for the mobile workforce. Interestingly they had tried the available solutions, but were not convinced with the proposition.
After further dialogues, we could summarize unsolved concerns as follows -
- The backup solution should not impact the user
- Centralized backup for multiple branch offices and mobile workforce
- Efficient bandwidth throttling and management
- Low impact on storage
We showcased and proposed inSync solution and proud to say that a large percentage of initial test deployments have already placed an order. Here are some of the brands we are proud to associate with -
So, what makes inSync a favourite with this big brand names ?
Firstly, I think because its Simple.
Although none of the customers explicitly mentioned it, but I think “simplicity” is one of the most underrated characteristics of any product and specially when it comes to backup.
I must confess, not so long back, I personally tried to installed a product which starts with a “T” and ends with “li”. The battle ended after 2 days and I still not sure if I won it 
I strongly feel, that in this new “twitter” age, complexity is that last thing the world wants.
Simple “under 30 minutes” installation and clear-n-crisp pricing are the two features which have fuelled the exponential growth of this product. Most of these accounts didn’t have to spend more than a day to fully understand all the features and deploy within the first set of test users. In fact for one of the accounts, it was just 2 hours
Secondly, because it comes with some Unmatched Features.
InSync comes with some very disruptive features like -
- Global source based data deduplication
- Continuous data protection
- Dynamic bandwidth and CPU scheduling
- WAN optimization
- Search based point-in-time recovery
- Managed end-point (client) upgrades
- Bare metal restore
And to best of my knowledge, most of these features are not offered by the existing products.
Third, because its Focused
Most of the existing products were developed to take care of traditional tape backups and now have been made to evolve to “backup servers, PCs and Laptops to disk/ tapes over LAN. And maybe sometimes help you to make some coffee”
We designed inSync from scratch, just focussed on “laptops”.
For example, a server backup has strict calendar based schedule which doesn’t make much sense for laptops. The server backup solutions are designed for secure and reliable local networks, but the laptop backup solution must be friendly towards the insecure weak WAN links.
Almost all the administrators regularly use 95% of it’s features. And all the new additions are planned keeping in mind the laptop users.
Lastly, The Product Quality
Most of these accounts paid a premium for inSync compared to existing “established” products. But, I guess quality is surely remembered much after the cost is forgotten.
By Jaspreet
on October 16th, 2009
under Druva inSync,News & Events,Products
Happy to announce the new much awaited v3.1 release. This is an incremental release.
Some of the highlights include -
- Performance improvements for full-pc sync and BMR
- Managed Clients Upgrade
- More powerful bandwidth management
- Sync on log-off and shut-down
- Upgrade for v2.2 customers
Performance Improvements
We were planning to surprise the customers by introducing a new much faster and scalable storage (code name “blackbird”), but was pulled out at the last moment because of some stability issues. It’s now being planned for next major release.
But, the new release does bring some awaited improvements and recommendations for full-PC backup and BMR (Bare Metal Restore). The users should see about 1.5-2x performance improvements in sync and restore speed.
Manage Clients Upgrade
This new exciting feature would allow the administrator to remotely upgrade the backup clients across organization. The admin would be able to “push” the updates for the users for a particular profile. But, only the clients with version v3.1 or higher would understand this new protocol, hence this feature will only be usable from v3.1.x
Better Bandwidth and CPU Management
With this release, the administrator would be able centrally choose and lock granular bandwidth and CPU prioritization for users of a particular profile. The admin would now be able to provision bandwidth differently for LAN and WAN based connections.
Sync on log-off and shut-down
This would be an optional setting and force user backups on log-off and shut-down for Windows based clients. This was heavily demanded by administrators managing mobile workforce.
We hope to release the v3.1 by Oct 22, 2009. Please use the link here to register for updates.
- Happy Diwali
By Jaspreet
on August 26th, 2009
under News & Events
While data growth is not new, the pace of growth has become more rapid, the location of data more dispersed, and the linkage between data sets more complex. We see a lot of customers curious about how we solve some of these challenges and very interested in “what’s coming next?”
We strongly believe in the “community” and trust that the software best evolves when guided by the active community. In an attempt to create a platform for healthy share of ideas and make the roadmap more transparent, we would be starting two new initiatives –
- A series of Webinars
- Druvaa Idea’s Forum (annoucement coming soon)
These webinars will share our thoughts on some of the challenges faced today and what’s our take on them. I would be taking up the first webinar of the series on Sep 1st 2009 and will be joined on the panel by project managers and some members of the sales team.
In this upcoming webinar I would go over -
- The key challenges faced by customers for ever growing local and remote data
- Best practices for backup and disaster recovery (DR)
- How Druvaa addresses some of these challenges
- And finally share and discuss the Druvaa innovation roadmap.
- The 40 minute presentation would be followed by a 20 minute Q&A session.
Who Should Attend
- Customers – End user who have deployed or planned a deployment of Druvaa Products
- Partners and Integrators – Druvaa Channel Partners and System Integrators
- Analysts – Industry Analysts and Independent Observers
Date and Time
Duration: 60 Minutes
Date: September 1st 2009
Time Options:
- US – 11:30 AM PST
- India – 2:30 PM IST
- EU – 2:30 PM GMT
By Jaspreet
on August 19th, 2009
under About Druva,Case Studies
Half way through the quarter, a post on customer wins sounds strange. But I just couldn’t resist breaking this news on the (lately sleepy) blog.
Druvaa acquired a couple of very interesting customers. NASA is a relatively small Federal deployment, but we are happy to add this brand name to our list of valuable customers. Just the fact that they tested and loved the product against the existing ones, make me feel very proud.
Zee-Turner is special, because this was one of the large accounts of a competing global-deduplication-backup product, until they dumped it for Druvaa inSync. The customer was not happy with the backup performance and the maintenance/training required for the heavy weight product.
I personally met this customer and I insisted that his support staff tries to play with the product while we have our 1 hours meeting going on. The support engineer installed and backed up the entire IT-staff within 1 hour, which was fr them shocking as they had spent over a week learning and setting up the heavy weight.
InSync was simple, elegant and fast. We closed the deal within 14 days
Emerson and Serco are again enterprise accounts we won fighting small but interesting battles.
A snapshot of key customers can be found here – http://www.druvaa.com/case-studies/customers . I am planning to write a series of blog posts to highlight the value proposition offered by InSync in each of these cases.
By Jaspreet
on July 22nd, 2009
under About Druva,Events & Conferences
Druvaa is the silver sponsor for the 6th edition of “the startup event” – Proto.in . The event would be held on July 25th in Pune. Here is a small article which appeared in the press recently.
I plan to attend the same with couple of more guys from Druvaa. Would love to catch and talk all things tech, statup, life and beyond.
Since I had stayed in Pune for over 3 years, here are some nice recommendations to raise a toast -
- Thousand Oaks, E-street
- All Stir fry, Gordan House, E-square
- ZKZ, near NIBM
By Jaspreet
on April 29th, 2009
under About Druva,Case Studies,Druva inSync,Technology & Innovation
As I mentioned in the last post, Druvaa acquired some great customers across 12 different countries. A large majority of the new customers are large enterprises from Technology and Finance verticals. The smallest deal size was about 20 licenses and largest about 10,000 licenses.
As a company policy we don’t engage in traditional enterprise selling, instead just help the interested customers buy mainly through the website. With this model, its even more important for to know what the customer likes and dislikes about the product.
I tried to reach almost all major customers to see why they purchased inSync and some others on why they did not. In this post I have tried to summarize the response I received.
Six things the customers really love about the product -
- Usability and ease of use – Especially the quick 20 minutes setup time for inSync v3 was very much appreciated
- Data deduplication and time savings - On an average the customers are seeing 1:15 storage and bandwidth savings compared to traditional softwares.
- WAN performance – Most of the customers are backing up mobile workforce easily and enjoying this feature.
- Search based restore – Search is used by almost 100% of the users and absolutely loved by all. This is something truly unique with inSync.
- Granular user policy control – Control over bandwidth, folders and restore policies is appreciated by all.
- Invisible backups – Smaller, smarter backup and specially the flexible scheduling is liked by all.
One of the fast emerging hot favorite feature is Bare Metal Restore, but I believe it may take some more time for this feature to get adopted properly.
Three things the customers or prospects would like to see improve -
- Mac Client - We do have Linux and Windows client, and all I can say is that Mac client is on its way
- Price - In the current economic scenario, unfortunately pricing is a major issue. This is probably a reason we saw sharp rise in sales when we offered the online introductory discount on v3. We do plan to release a low cost offering for inSync in near future
- Performance for large backup/restore- With the new release there are a few performance issues for non-compressible data especially over the Gigabit network. This is expected to be taken care of with next release.
With the new v3 release now production ready, in the next few posts I would like to outline the product roadmap and whats happening with the new product – Druvaa Pheonix.
By Jaspreet
on April 15th, 2009
under Events & Conferences
Yup, there has been no new posts over the past one month. March is financial year ending for us and kept all of us very busy.
Overall it was a good year for us. The economic slowdown actually brings new opportunities for small company like ours. Where most of our big competitors have deferred new products, scrapped new initiatives and reduces sales force – Druvaa demonstrated almost 300% QYQ growth rate
Last quarter we released a new major upgrade (v3), launched new website , acquired some great new customers and established some fabulous case studies & benchmarks.
In the next few posts, I would like to highlight some of these wins and how the road ahead looks like.
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