Storware 7.2 – what’s new?

→ Storware Backup & Recovery 7.2 is here! With version 7.2, we’re adding technical preview support for another hypervisor manager – Zadara zCompute. This includes support for generic incremental backups as well.

→ Backup Copy for OS Agent – OS Agent backup policies now support secondary backup destinations, ensuring even greater data resilience.

→ ZFS Backup Destination Support – Take advantage of ZFS deduplication and snapshot capabilities for efficient synthetic backup storage.

→ Optimized Tape Management – Multiple improvements, including performance enhancements and reliability fixes, make tape handling smoother than ever.

→ Improved Reporting & Monitoring – Grouped backup retries ensure only the final backup status is included in email reports and dashboards.

→ Improvements for cross-hypervisor restoration introduced in v7.1, enabling virtual machine (VM) restores between different hypervisor types, such as VMware vCenter/ESXi and OpenStack/Virtuozzo. Additionally, the new VM-to-VM (V2V) migration feature facilitates seamless migration of vSphere VMs directly into OpenStack environments, offering a straightforward path to consolidate and optimize multi-cloud infrastructures.

Storware 7.2 high level architecture:

Backup → Recover → Thrive

Storware Backup and Recovery ability to manage and protect vast amounts of data provides uninterrupted development and security against ransomware and other threats, leverages data resilience, and offers stability to businesses in today’s data-driven landscape.

Get started with a free version or unlock the full potential of Storware Backup and Recovery with a 60-day trial! Choose Storware and protect your success today.

When it comes to backup performance, every little detail counts. Unfortunately, some companies tend to oversimplify the discussion, focusing only on a handful of key factors. The reality is much more complex, and ignoring the finer points can put data protection at risk.

In a previous article (“Efficient Backup: Ready for the Black Scenario“), we explored backup methods, the importance of RTO and RPO, and the differences between data storage and backup. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Now, let’s dive deeper and examine how storage media, network throughput, and data reduction mechanisms impact backup performance. What should you consider when choosing the best solutions for your business?

Storage Media: A Tough Choice

Not long ago, using SSDs in NAS systems (often used for backups) seemed unnecessary. Today, almost every NAS device supports them. One of the loudest voices advocating for ditching traditional hard drives is VAST Data, a U.S.-based company specializing in large-scale data management. Their solution relies entirely on flash storage, offering archive-level data retention at a cost comparable to HDDs. With proprietary technology that extends SSD lifespan to up to 10 years, their systems reduce the need for multiple devices to store and protect data. Perhaps in the future, businesses won’t have to choose between HDDs and SSDs – but for now, that decision still matters.

Flash storage significantly boosts backup performance. For example, a standard SATA SSD can be twice as fast as a mechanical SATA hard drive, while NVMe SSDs can outperform HDDs by a staggering 35 times. That’s a game-changer. Yet, many businesses still favor HDDs due to their lower cost. At the start of 2024, a 1TB NVMe PCIe 5 SSD cost around $150 – the same price as an 8TB HDD.

With the growing demand for storage-driven by explosive data growth and backup best practices (3-2-1, 4-3-2, 3-2-1-1-0) – choosing the right media is critical. Many experts argue that hard drives remain more reliable and predictable, while SSDs, despite improvements, can still experience unexpected failures.

But HDDs and SSDs aren’t the only options. Tape storage remains in play, offering a much cheaper alternative to HDDs for long-term archival. However, HDDs are far superior for short-term storage and incremental backups. Speed is also a factor – HDDs provide faster data access compared to tape, where retrieving data can take minutes due to loading and rewinding times. Restoring a large file system from 30 tapes could add up to two hours of delay, whereas HDDs work instantly.

Read more about Data Storage:

• Optimizing Data Storage Performance in Hybrid Cloud Environments
• Secondary Storage: Definition, Devices, and How It Can Support Your Backup Strategy

Network Throughput: The Silent Bottleneck

Backup performance isn’t just about storage; network speed plays a huge role, too. If backups run multiple times a day, high bandwidth is essential. But if backups occur less frequently – say, once a week or only after hours – the network load is lower. To pinpoint bottlenecks, companies should analyze their network’s data transfer speed. A simple formula can help:

Backup Data Size / Backup Window (time allocated for backup without disrupting operations)

For instance, backing up 5TB of data within a six-hour window requires a network capable of transferring 853GB per hour (5,120GB / 6 hours). On a Fast Ethernet (100Base-T) network, transferring 250GB takes about an hour, whereas a Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base-T) network is ten times faster. In this case, Fast Ethernet won’t cut it.

To improve network performance, businesses can:

• Extend the backup window
• Use dedicated high-speed networks
• Upgrade to Gigabit Ethernet
• Optimize data through compression and deduplication

Slimming Down Data: Deduplication & Compression

With data storage costs on the rise, companies are turning to compression and deduplication to reduce backup sizes.

Compression comes in two types:

• Lossy: Removes unnecessary data (e.g., reducing image quality slightly)
• Lossless: Keeps all data intact, essential for text files, executables, and spreadsheets

For example, a 50MB file with a 2:1 compression ratio shrinks to 25MB. However, compression can reduce network throughput while processing data. While a small quality loss in compressed images may go unnoticed, it matters for high-resolution projects.

Deduplication, on the other hand, prevents redundant data from being stored multiple times. It scans, divides data into blocks, and saves only unique ones.

A key metric here is the deduplication factor, which is often misunderstood. If a solution advertises a 10:1 deduplication factor, it doesn’t mean twice the reduction compared to 20:1. Instead, the percentage of data saved follows this formula:

% Data Reduction = 1 – (1/DD) x 100%

• 10:1 Deduplication: 90% data reduction
• 20:1 Deduplication: 95% data reduction

The difference between a 10:1 and 20:1 factor is only 5%, not double the savings as some assume.

Performance Optimization: It’s All About Balance

Reducing backup sizes is a smart move, but it must align with broader data protection strategies. Think of it like fuel efficiency in a car: a vehicle might have great mileage, but if the driver has bad habits – like underinflated tires or carrying unnecessary weight – it will still waste fuel.

The same principle applies to backup performance. Every component – from media type and network speed to compression and deduplication – affects the overall efficiency. The key is balancing cost, speed, and reliability to ensure optimal data protection.

By understanding these details, businesses can make smarter backup decisions—without sacrificing performance or security.

The efficiency and reliability of backups are becoming increasingly important. Statistics on incidents are staggering, and there are also internal infrastructure problems. The growing cryptocurrency market allows for the unpunished collection of ransoms. And companies themselves do not want to inform the public about problems, because they additionally expose themselves to image losses.

Decision-makers are becoming aware that a cyberattack or failure can paralyze the work of a company or institution at any time. Nowadays, you have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario and have a proven plan on how to quickly return to normal work mode when something bad happens.

The definition of IT infrastructure downtime is not unambiguous. However, it most often refers to time not spent on productive work as a result of a cyberattack.

Of course, sometimes such downtime is the result of internal errors, natural disasters, or incorrect configuration of IT systems.

The activity of companies can be stopped for several hours, but sometimes the downtime lasts longer. This was the case, for example, with the well-known American brewery Moison Coors in 2021. The cyberattack halted the operation of the plant for several weeks, which made it impossible to produce almost 2 million hectoliters of beer. As you can easily guess, the financial losses were huge. Similar, though no less dramatic, examples can be multiplied endlessly.

In order to minimize the risk of a cyberattack, enterprises use various methods: they implement advanced security systems and introduce cybersecurity training. Prevention is important, but you must always be prepared for the worst-case scenario. Therefore, business continuity plans are implemented, which establish procedures for creating backups and recovering data after a failure.

More Data, Longer Backup Window

The constant increase in data means that the backup window is extended. Meanwhile, the business needs of companies and the allocation of resources are completely different. Backup, in an ideal world, should happen in the background and not interfere with the main tasks of the IT infrastructure. Is it possible to reconcile one with the other?

It seems that everything is a matter of scale. This depends on the company’s profile, its size, as well as the type and amount of data processed. In the case of small production plants, the efficiency of the backup is not so important. However, there are many sectors of the economy where even a short failure means a serious drop in revenue. In addition to operational delays, there are issues related to compliance, for which severe financial penalties are threatened.

At first glance, planning a backup process seems to be relatively simple – just enough storage media for storing data and some software. However, the larger the organization, the greater the scale of difficulties, because the efficiency of creating backups is influenced by a whole lot of factors.

The basic issue during planning is the identification of computers covered by the backup. And it is not just about their number, but also operating systems, network technologies, any connected disks or tape drives, as well as applications whose backups need to be performed, e.g. Microsoft Exchange.

You also need to consider the types of data, such as text, graphics, or databases. How compressible is the data? How many files are involved? Will the data be encrypted? It is known that encrypted backups may run slower.

What Type of Backup to Choose?

When planning a backup, one of the three available methods is selected: full, incremental, differential. Making the right decision has an impact not only on the amount of disk space needed, but also the time of restoring and saving data. However, the first backup will always be full (and usually its execution takes the longest).

Choosing the right variant is not an easy matter and there is no golden mean here. Each of the methods mentioned earlier has weaknesses and strengths.

Performing a full backup is time-consuming and requires a lot of disk space, but in return it provides full protection and the ability to quickly restore all data.

The alternative is an incremental backup: after creating a full backup, the process of creating incremental backups follows, in which information about data changes since the last backup is saved. The user does not consume too much space in the data store. The process of creating copies is fast. The downside is the slow data recovery time.

The third option is a differential backup, where only data that has changed since the full backup is considered. The process is repeated until the next full backup is performed. In this case, the full backup is the point of reference for creating subsequent copies. Thanks to this created backup, it is possible to quickly restore the complete set of data. This option is recommended for frequently used and changed files. However, the more time passes from the last full backup, the differential files grow, which can extend the time of creating the backup. Although a differential backup is more economical than a full one, it may take up more space than an incremental one if the data is frequently changed.

Choosing the right backup strategy is crucial, and the complexity increases with organizational size. Factors like data types, compression, encryption, and the choice between full, incremental, and differential backups all play a role. Solutions like Storware can help simplify this process by automating backup schedules, flexible backup types, and providing centralized management. This allows organizations to tailor their backup strategy to their specific needs and optimize for both efficiency and recovery time.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective)

The maximum allowable time for which a system, application, or business process can be down after a failure or disaster, before the consequences become unacceptable, is determined by the RTO (Recovery Time Objective) factor.

For example, a company provides project management software in a cloud model, and the RTO is 8 hours. If the servers in the cloud fail due to a technical problem or a cyberattack, the IT team has eight hours to restore the service before it negatively affects customers. If you do not meet the 8-hour RTO, customers may be cut off from access to critical project data for too long, leading to delays in their work.

RPO (Recovery Point Objective)

It is important not only the type of copies made and the time of their recovery, but also the frequency of their creation, which has a direct impact on the requirements for the carrier, the speed of data transfer and the ability to restore. In a large, modern factory, the loss of critical data can lead to the downtime of the entire production line. Consequently, the company is exposed to losses of many millions.

Financial institutions, which carry out a huge number of transactions online, or cloud service providers are in a similar situation. In such situations, the RPO (Recovery Point Objective) indicator, which determines when to make a backup so that the occurrence of a failure does not significantly affect the continuity of the company’s operational work, should be close to zero. As you can easily guess, this is not a cheap solution, requiring redundant creation of backups and data replication in real time.

Examples of RTO and RPO in Different Industries

Healthcare

• RTO: A hospital’s electronic health record (EHR) system might have an RTO of 4 hours, meaning it must be restored within 4 hours to avoid significant disruption to patient care.
• RPO: The same hospital might have an RPO of 1 hour for the EHR system, meaning that no more than 1 hour of patient data can be lost in the event of a system failure.

Financial Services

• RTO: A bank’s online banking platform might have an RTO of 1 hour, meaning it must be restored within 1 hour to avoid significant customer inconvenience and potential financial losses.
• RPO: The same bank might have an RPO of 30 minutes for its core banking system, meaning that no more than 30 minutes of transaction data can be lost in the event of a system failure.

E-commerce

• RTO: An e-commerce website might have an RTO of 30 minutes, meaning it must be restored within 30 minutes to avoid significant revenue loss and customer dissatisfaction.
• RPO: The same e-commerce website might have an RPO of 15 minutes for its product catalog database, meaning that no more than 15 minutes of product data can be lost in the event of a system failure.

Manufacturing

• RTO: A manufacturing plant’s production line control system might have an RTO of 2 hours, meaning it must be restored within 2 hours to avoid significant production delays and potential financial losses.
• RPO: The same manufacturing plant might have an RPO of 1 hour for its inventory management system, meaning that no more than 1 hour of inventory data can be lost in the event of a system failure.

Important Considerations

• The specific RTO and RPO values for a given system or application will depend on the organization’s business requirements and risk tolerance.
• Organizations should conduct a business impact analysis (BIA) to determine the potential impact of downtime and data loss on their operations.
• RTO and RPO values should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure they remain aligned with the organization’s business needs.

Meeting stringent RTO and RPO targets requires a robust and reliable backup and recovery solution. Storware offers [mention specific Storware features related to RTO/RPO, e.g., fast recovery capabilities, near-zero RPO with replication, automated failover, etc.] enabling businesses to minimize downtime and data loss in the event of a disaster. By leveraging such solutions, companies can confidently meet their recovery objectives and ensure business continuity.

Data and Backup Storage

Some organizations do not distinguish between data storage and backup. The first process is usually dictated by legal requirements, which specify how long digital information should be stored. In addition, we have rules when and how to delete them when they are no longer needed.

Legal requirements for data storage include:

• Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX),
• European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS)
• and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

On the other hand, storing backups determines how long an additional copy of the data must be maintained in the event of loss, damage, or disaster.

While data storage and backup are distinct processes, they are closely intertwined. A comprehensive backup solution like Storware can integrate with existing storage infrastructure and help organizations manage their backup retention policies effectively. This ensures compliance with legal requirements while optimizing storage costs and simplifying backup management

Most companies make the mistake of keeping backups for too long. Statistically, data recovery most often takes place on the basis of the latest versions, and not those from six months ago or older.

Therefore, it is worth realizing that the more data contained in the backup infrastructure, the more difficult it is to manage and the more it costs.

Summary

The issues mentioned in this article do not exhaust the issues related to backup performance. In the next material, we will take a closer look at carriers, network connections, deduplication and compression, as well as the most common errors leading to a decrease in backup performance.

When it comes to server virtualization, two prominent hypervisors are often considered: VMware ESXi and XCP-ng. Both platforms offer robust solutions for creating and managing virtual machines (VMs) but differ in several key areas, including cost, performance, features, usability, and support. Understanding these differences is crucial for organizations looking to optimize their virtual infrastructure.

What is VMware ESXi?

VMware created VMware ESXi as part of its virtualization solution. ESXI is known for its excellent performance, scalability, and efficiency, making it a favorite among enterprises. This bare-metal hypervisor installs directly onto the physical server, dividing its resources into several virtual machines. This direct installation makes it easy to manage hardware resources effectively.

Key Features and Functionality

VMware offers several industry-standard features, including;

• High Performance ESXi is designed to interact directly with the host hardware, delivering exceptional performance. Its lightweight architecture makes it ideal for running virtual machines efficiently. ESXi also minimizes resource overhead while maximizing physical resource utilization.

• Resource Management With ESXi, users can allocate CPU, memory, and storage resources to individual virtual machines as needed. It also uses advanced tools like Distributed Power Management and Dynamic Resource Scheduler to enhance system efficiency.

• Security ESXi protects virtual environments with features like secure boot, VM encryption, and role-based access control (RBAC). These measures help safeguard against unauthorized access and data breaches.

• Fault Tolerance and High Availability: ESXi ensures uninterrupted access to virtual machines, even during hardware failures. Fault Tolerance (FT) stores a live replica of the virtual machine for continuous availability. If the current one fails, the High Availability (HA) automatically restarts affected virtual machines on another host.

• Scalability ESXi can be seamlessly integrated with VMware solutions like vSphere and vCenter, enabling the management of thousands of virtual machines across multiple physical hosts. This scalability makes it well-suited for large, complex environments.

What is XCP-ng?

XCP-ng stands for Xen Cloud Platform—Next Generation. It is an open-source virtualization platform built on an Xen hypervisor. XCP-ng was created as an alternative to Citrix XenServer, solving the problems it faced. It offers a comprehensive range of tools for virtual environment management. As an open-source project, there are no licensing fees, making it a great choice for enterprises and small businesses.

Key Features and Functionality

XCP-ng comes with several modern features designed to enhance virtualization capabilities, including;

• Xen Orchestra Integration

XCP-ng works seamlessly with Xen Orchestra, a web-based, user-friendly platform for managing VMs, storage, and networking. It offers free and premium versions, both of which offer advanced features and professional support.

• High Availability (HA)

XCP-ng offers high-availability clustering. This feature ensures that if a host dies, the virtual machines on that server will be moved to another host.

• Storage Support

XCP-ng works with various storage options, such as Fibre Channel, NFS, and iSCSI. It also integrates with distributed storage systems like Ceph, allowing users to create strong and scalable storage solutions to handle their virtualized workloads.

• Live Migration

XCP-ng uses live migration to transfer VMs across hosts when transferring virtual machines. This method ensures that there’s load balancing and reduced downtime during maintenance

• Networking Features

XCP-ng offers advanced networking tools like virtual LAN (VLAN), network bonding, and Open vSwitch (OVS) integration. These features make it easy to build complex network setups that prioritize security, performance, and reliability.

What to Consider Before Choosing Between VMware ESXi and XCP-ng

An IT expert looking to choose between VMware ESXi and XCP-ng has a lot to consider, including;

Cost and Licensing

One of the most significant differences between VMware ESXi and XCP-ng is their cost structures. VMware ESXi operates on a proprietary licensing model, which is more expensive than XCP-ng. It, however, has a free version with limitations. The version provides fewer features, no centralized management, and a total of eight vCPUs per VM. Thus, advanced features like vMotion, High Availability, and Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) are only available through paid licenses.

On the other hand, XCP-ng is an open-source hypervisor based on XenServer. It is a cost-effective alternative as there are no licensing fees. This open-source nature allows organizations to utilize a full-featured hypervisor without the financial burden of proprietary solutions.

Performance

Performance is another key factor for hypervisors. Fortunately, both VMware ESXi and XCP-ng are type-1 hypervisors. This means they work directly on the host’s hardware. Type-1 hypervisors generally provide superior performance compared to type-2 hypervisors. When both hypervisor performances were compared, they were nearly the same. However, some users have reported that, in certain scenarios, ESXi outperforms XCP-ng, while in others, XCP-ng holds the advantage. For instance, ESXi was faster in a series of tests in about 60% of the cases. Meanwhile, XCP-ng led in the remaining 40%. Thus, the better choice could depend on the circumstances, so always consider the specific workloads and configurations when checking performance. They could have varying performances based on the particular applications and environments in use.

Features and Functionality

Both hypervisors offer a range of features designed to enhance virtualization capabilities, but there are notable differences:

• High Availability (HA): VMware’s HA feature allows you to automatically restart VMs on another host when a host fails, minimizing downtime. XCP-ng also offers HA capabilities. Similarly, if a host fails in XCP-ng, the affected VMs are rebooted on another host, resulting in short downtime during the reboot process.

• Management Tools: VMware ESXi is managed through the vCenter Server, a comprehensive tool that provides centralized management of virtual environments and a paid product requiring a separate license. XCP-ng utilizes Xen Orchestra, a web-based open-source interface. It enables straightforward management of VMs, storage, and networking. Xen Orchestra offers both free and premium versions, with the latter providing enhanced features and professional support options.

• Backup Solutions: Both platforms support various backup solutions. VMware ESXi integrates with different third-party backup tools and offers snapshot-based backups and replication features. XCP-ng, with Xen Orchestra, provides built-in backup solutions, including full and delta backups. These solutions help to cater to different backup and recovery needs.In this field

  Storware Backup and Recovery can support data protection (disaster recovery, cyber resiliency, business continuity) for both hypervisors, within one license. Here are the example videos showing how Storware works with each platform:

Backup and Recovery for VMware

Backup and Recovery for XCP-ng

Usability

Usability is an important factor, especially for organizations without dedicated IT teams. VMware ESXi has an in-built web-based HTML5 GUI that allows straightforward single-host management without additional installations. This intuitive interface simplifies tasks such as building and managing VMs, configuring virtual switches, and handling data stores.

In contrast, XCP-ng doesn’t have a local web GUI for host management. Instead, users must deploy Xen Orchestra (XOA), which offers a rich feature set but makes the initial setup complex. However, once configured, Xen Orchestra provides a comprehensive management interface that is as good as VMware’s.

Support and Community

Support options differ significantly between the two platforms:

• VMware ESXi: VMware offers a high degree of professional support and a well-established knowledge base as a commercial product. It also caters to clients that require reliable and timely assistance.

• XCP-ng: As an open-source project, XCP-ng relies on a growing community for support. Vendors like Vates render professional services, but the ecosystem is still maturing compared to VMware’s long-standing presence in the market.

Conclusion

Choosing between VMware ESXi and XCP-ng depends on various factors, including budget constraints, specific workload requirements, desired features, and the level of support preferred. Organizations seeking a cost-effective, open-source solution with support may choose XCP-ng. However, those seeking comprehensive enterprise support and advanced features might opt for VMdetermine ESXi. You must evaluate your unique needs and resources to determine which is best.