ESG TECHNICAL VALIDATION

Protect Business Data with Commvault and HPE GreenLake

Scalable Data Backup and Recovery from the Edge to the Cloud

How to Deliver Successful AI Projects by Reducing Risk and Boosting Performance

By Justin Boyer, Validation Analyst; and Craig Ledo, Validation Analyst
OCTOBER 2022

Introduction

This ESG Technical Validation details the analysis of Commvault data backup and recovery services offered through HPE GreenLake. ESG observed how this partnership enables scalable and secure data protection for enterprises, from the edge, to on-premises, to the cloud.

Background

Organizations are developing hybrid data environments. Data is stored in on-premises legacy apps, SaaS tools, in the cloud, and on endpoints such as laptops and mobile devices. It’s harder than ever to understand what data an organization may have and where it resides, let alone making sure it’s backed up and recoverable. Despite the criticality of data, keeping it safe is complex and expensive, leaving companies in a difficult position.
In addition, ecosystem complexity continues to hinder the democratization of data and analytics. Overburdened and under-skilled teams, the increasing distribution and growth of data, data quality issues, tool proliferation, and rising costs are just some of the challenges organizations hope to overcome. ESG research found that 28% of organizations surveyed list data growth as a challenge that has driven their overall DataOps strategy (see Figure 1). Another 26% cited complexity due to the distributed nature of data and supporting environments. Data growth doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Also, as more remote workers join the workforce and organizations continue to migrate to public and hybrid cloud environments, the complexity of knowing where data is and how it’s being used will increase.
Figure 1. Top 5 Data Challenges Driving DataOps Strategy

Which of the following data challenges have driven or are driving your organization’s DataOps strategy? (Percent of respondents, N=403, multiple responses accepted)

Source: ESG, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

As the rate of data creation increases, backup solutions can have trouble keeping up. Organizations require increasing resources, which leads to increased cost, to manage data growth and protect crucial assets. Companies need confidence that backed up data can be restored if the worst happens. They also need a user-friendly way to manage data workloads, monitor and increase capacity when needed, and protect data from attack.
Commvault with HPE GreenLake
HPE GreenLake provides on-premises data protection infrastructure in a scalable procurement model. Commvault integrates with HPE infrastructure to provide data protection, security, and visibility.
Figure 2 outlines how Commvault protects data across the enterprise. Commvault offers protection for a broad range of workloads and data types, with built-in security and the ability to send data to secondary targets like disk, tape, and the cloud.
Figure 2. Commvault Solution Overview

Source: ESG, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

Commvault with HPE GreenLake provides predictable high performance of data backup and recovery with pay-as-you-go scalability. It eliminates point products by allowing you to manage the entire hybrid cloud environment using a single solution across physical, virtual, and cloud platforms, reducing cost and complexity. Commvault’s AI capabilities create a self-driving backup system that simplifies complex and mundane tasks.
Commvault with HPE GreenLake protects and provides better insights into an organization’s data. One solution offering provides data protection, reporting, and insights with cloud-like scalability.

ESG Technical Validation

ESG performed validation of Commvault’s capabilities via remote demonstration with the goal of assessing how Commvault with HPE GreenLake protects and secures enterprise data. Specifically, ESG evaluated Commvault’s HyperScale X platform, security features, and scalable data protection.
The Power of Commvault and HPE GreenLake Together
Commvault has partnered with HPE to jointly certify a HyperScale X reference architecture solution. This architecture delivers Commvault’s powerful software and broad workload coverage on a resilient, scale-out platform to simplify data protection for organizations of all sizes.
HyperScale X
Hyperscale X is a hyperconverged backup infrastructure that delivers resiliency, performance, and immutability. The solution offers edge-to-cloud data protection using Commvault software with the ability to add nodes, as needed, through HPE’s scalable infrastructure. Data copies can then be sent to a secondary target (i.e., either another HyperScale X instance or a public or private cloud) for disaster recovery. Organizations start with three nodes and can add one node at a time up to five petabytes (PB) of storage. As nodes are added, HyperScale X balances loads automatically between them for the best performance and resiliency. HyperScale X’s software-defined storage architecture delivers an all-in-one data protection solution, covering the organization’s workloads across on-prem and cloud.
ESG observed Commvault’s backup and recovery tools and how Commvault offers flexibility in restoration and backup options. Backups can be restored in various ways and can be changed from the original format to a different one if necessary.
Commvault’s indexing functionality allows an admin to search for files within backups without restoring them. Once the needed backup is found, Commvault displays the dates and times specific snapshots were taken (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. VM Recovery Points

Source: ESG, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

There are several restoration options, including restoring a full VM. However, Commvault provides added flexibility by allowing admins to take a VM from one platform and restore it to another. In the scenario demonstrated to ESG, a VMware vCenter VM was restored to an Azure VM in the cloud by choosing an “out of place” restore (see Figure 4).
Figure 4. VM Restoration

Source: ESG, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

WHY THIS MATTERS

According to ESG research, data growth has become a constant in modern IT environments, with 59% of survey respondents reporting that they believe their organization’s total volume of data is growing by 21% or more annually. Commvault provides robust data protection and recovery along with all-in-one workload management and reporting. HyperScale X delivers scalability through HPE GreenLake hardware.

Organizations have complete control over the data managed by Commvault. VMs can be moved from platform to platform, and data can be recovered with a couple of clicks. Data management is simplified and automated, providing increased agility for an ever-changing ecosystem. IT admins don’t need to adopt new tools to keep up with evolving business requirements, such as moving workloads to the cloud or between clouds.

Scalability for Data Recovery Infrastructure
ESG explored how Commvault, combined with HPE GreenLake, provides advanced data protection services at cloud scale. ESG research found that organizations believe their data grows by an average of 35% annually, up from 27% in 2019. As the amount of data created by businesses continues to grow, provisioning the required space for backup is challenging. HPE GreenLake provides scalable infrastructure to store data backups.
Scalable Data Protection
HPE GreenLake provides a cloud-based model of scalability and consumption-based pricing. Figure 5 illustrates the scalability of Commvault through HPE GreenLake. Through GreenLake, adding new nodes is simplified, giving admins a cloud-like feel to adding additional infrastructure.
Figure 5. HPE GreenLake Scales Commvault When Needed

Source: ESG, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

ESG validated the strong reporting and data insight capabilities of Commvault. As the data is backed up and stored, Commvault analyzes the data to provide key business insights. IT decision makers can use these analytics to make better decisions, address business challenges, and execute their strategies in a controlled manner. Business leaders will know where data resides, if there are duplicates, and the types of data stored.
Commvault provides many customizable dashboards and reports to help admins gain insight into organizations’ data. Figure 6 shows the virtualization dashboard that tracks and analyzes the virtual machine workloads Commvault is managing. Commvault includes dashboards for capacity usage, security, and HyperScale, along with audit trails, health reports, and storage utilization that don’t need third-party integrations or additional licenses.
Figure 6. Commvault Virtualization Dashboard

Source: ESG, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Data volumes continue to grow, and there is no sign that data creation is slowing down anytime soon. Organizations need to provision infrastructure quickly enough to hold the massive number of backups needed to protect against data loss or compromise. They also need to know what data types they have and where they are.

Together, Commvault with HPE GreenLake provide IT admins with the ability to back up with confidence while scaling infrastructure quickly to keep up with increasing volumes. Meanwhile, Commvault analyzes the data as it’s backed up to help gain business insights.

Data Security
Backup and disaster recovery are critical business functions. However, data security is another critical capability that typically requires separate software. Commvault’s 35+ built-in data security features protect data workloads as part of an all-in-one solution.
Commvault Data Security Features
ESG validated Commvault’s data security features. Ransomware protection prevents data tampering on specific volumes chosen by the IT administrator. Immutable backups protect archived data from tampering as well. Figure 7 shows the user interface (UI) where administrators choose which volumes will be protected from data tampering by Commvault.
Figure 7. Ransomware Protection

Source: ESG, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

Commvault also provides role-based access control within the application to manage who has access to specific data workloads. Commvault also records actions to provide an audit trail. Data backups can be tailored based on data tiers. For example, critical business data can be backed up more frequently than data in a lower classification.
Commvault also includes a security dashboard (see Figure 8) where users can quickly identify risk exposure and coverage status. By obtaining this level of insight, users can identify areas that need to be addressed from a single dashboard and ensure issues can be addressed quickly.
Figure 8. Security Health Assessment Dashboard

Source: ESG, a division of TechTarget, Inc.

WHY THIS MATTERS

ESG research identified the combination of accelerating data growth and copies of that data is creating a deluge, inundating the IT infrastructure with more complexity, cost, and cyber-risk from an expanded attack surface. Many data backup solutions don’t provide the additional data security features needed to protect the data while it’s archived or migrated. Often third-party tools are required, increasing cost and complexity to manage the growing data infrastructure of modern businesses.

Commvault’s ransomware protection provides secure backup capabilities with immutable backups, actively prevents tampering on significant data volumes, and recovers data in the event of an attack. Commvault also features role-based access control, so Commvault users only see the data they need to see, while providing auditing for key functions. Commvault’s built-in security features prevent organizations from having to pay for and manage several different tools to try to bolt-on security after the fact.

The Bigger Truth

Data is more valuable than ever, and organizations are investing in protecting it. However, several challenges face modern organizations when considering data protection solutions. ESG research shows that 35% overall data growth has become a constant in modern IT environments. But it is not just data growth that is an issue; it is data “multiplication” (i.e., copies of production data that are used for other purposes).
ESG explored how Commvault, combined with HPE GreenLake, provides advanced data protection services at scale. The HyperScale X reference architecture wraps Commvault data protection software with scalable infrastructure provided by HPE. A cloud-like model of self-service provisioning and consumption-based pricing frees IT teams from having to manage data recovery systems as well as the hardware used to store the backups. Commvault with HPE GreenLake allows organizations to protect data (whether on-premises or in the cloud) while providing services like air-gapped secondary locations and cloud storage for backups.
Commvault ransomware and data recovery allow organizations to function without stressing about losing millions of dollars from an attack or natural disaster. For some companies, one attack is enough to force them out of business. Commvault offers peace of mind, with the knowledge that all data is readily available in the worst-case scenario. Commvault also provides business insights, so users know where critical data resides and are able to make better decisions.
Commvault has partnered with HPE to provide a strong solution to the complex data protection needs of modern organizations. Commvault eliminates point products by allowing organizations to manage the entire hybrid cloud environment using a single solution across physical, virtual, and cloud platforms, helping to reduce costs. HPE provides self-service agility, pay-per-use pricing, optimized scalability, and IT management services.
If your organization is looking to protect critical data across the enterprise while gaining deep insights into that data, all while scaling efficiently and reducing operational overhead, ESG strongly suggests you consider Commvault with HPE GreenLake.

This ESG Technical Validation was commissioned by Commvault and is distributed under license from TechTarget, Inc.

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