Data Recovery Digest

IBM is at it again. Undoubtedly one of the biggest names in all of computing, they’ve tackled everything from modern storage to highly advanced artificial intelligence – and now they’re trying their hand at deployment, backup and recovery in virtual environments. Their newest product, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, is expected to pave the way to increased virtualization amongst small, medium-sized and large-scale enterprises alike.

Officially launched in mid-2017, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is deployable in mere minutes. Not only does it simplify the entire process of data protection, but it does so within a variety of environments, including virtual, physical and the cloud – and it even works as a standalone program or as a complementary utility to the IBM Spectrum Protect platform.

The Technical Details

Douglas O’Flaherty, program director with Spectrum solutions marketing at IBM, summed up the new package by saying: “What we’ve done with Spectrum Protect Plus is build a platform, a solution, specifically for the way admins work, with the right kind of a back-end so that they can do their important data protection easily and simply, and, it also integrates into Spectrum Protect for the more sophisticated, comprehensive CIO data governance-level view.”

According to IBM’s website, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus boasts four key features:

1. Policy-driven data protection provides faster backups and recovery operations. Spectrum Protect Plus also gives you the ability to view overall storage utilization and compliance statistics.

2. Ultra-fast deployment. One of the primary selling points of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, this feature is driven through the combination of an agent-less architecture, integrated automation and an Open Virtual Appliance, or OVA.

3. Versatile options. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus includes a wide catalog of different VMs and related files for maximum efficiency. These files are easily found via the Google-like search functionality.

4. Built-in compatibility' with the base version of Spectrum Protect providers long-term storage and archival across a variety of mediums, including disk, tape and the cloud.

O’Flaherty continued his comments by saying: ''“The Google-like search can be done not just by timeline but by text search. This is a brand new product by the development team for backup and management in virtual machines. It's designated for simple installation and simple ease of use."''

As you can see, IBM spared no expense in the creation and development of their new storage solution. Spectrum Protect Plus is a huge step for IBM, both in terms of maintaining competitiveness and staying at the top of their class, but how does this compare to their past products?

Treading New Ground…Again

This isn’t the first time IBM has tried to support virtual environments, but they’re hoping this iteration is far more successful. In the past, IBM offered Tivoli Storage Manager. Although some of the fundamentals are similar, including the integration of VMware vStorage API for Data Protection, or VADP, this is an entirely new product.

For more information on IBM, Spectrum Protect Plus or any of their other solutions, please visit their {{https://www.ibm.com/us-en/marketplace/ibm-spectrum-protect-plus|official website}}.