As we look ahead to 2021 (and continue to navigate through a global pandemic), organizations of any size are faced with two major challenges: data protection and cyber security. Modern data and analytics have steadily become the ‘gold’ in the era of continuous data-driven technological innovation.

According to a recent report from the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), approximately 68% of organizations use data stored on a secondary server for more than just recovery - such as for cyber security/ransomware testing or application testing and development. This statistic is indicative on its own of just how valuable data protection and retention has become.

A recent survey conducted by ESG asked C-level IT professionals what their top data protection concerns were:
 

Based on the information displayed above, the top concerns for IT leaders are costs savings and the protection of virtual environments.

A robust, modern data protection platform like Spectrum Protect has long been a candidate for its ability to back up virtualized infrastructure, however, with its file-based nature for data retention, it added a certain level of complexity when it came to accommodating the need for more image-based backups in today’s virtualized world.

To mitigate this, Spectrum Protect Plus was introduced a few years ago and it became a staple for modern data protection for virtualized environments. It can be used as a standalone solution or be easily integrated with Spectrum Protect. The software has evolved quite a bit since its original release.

The latest version, introduced earlier in 2020, now supports not only VMware and Hyper-V, but a range of application environments including Microsoft SQL, Oracle, Exchange on either virtual or physical servers, and even in Amazon Web Services (AWS). Spectrum Protect Plus can also be integrated into Kubernetes – an open-source platform for managing containerized workloads.

What Makes Spectrum Protect Plus a Modern Data Protection Solution?

• Low Cost – Going back to the results of the ESG survey, the minimal investment required and ease of deployment to implement Spectrum Protect Plus makes it an attractive and appealing solution for many organizations.

• Instant Access – In today’s world, time is money and Spectrum Protect Plus provides instant access of its backup data for both operational recovery purposes as well as for data reuse, keeping downtime to a minimum.
   
• Software-Defined – Spectrum Protect Plus – like its counterpart – is hardware agnostic and purely software-defined providing clients with the greatest scalability and flexibility in working with their existing infrastructure.

In short, Spectrum Protect Plus – with its latest advancements, continues to be a strong candidate when it comes to adopting a robust, cost-effective and reliable modern data protection solution for your organization. IT leaders can see lower costs for data retention, DR and compliance, near instant data recovery with little to no downtime, and leverage backup data for multiple use cases.

At Sentia, our team comes with years of practical experience working with a variety of modern data protection platforms, including Spectrum Protect and Protect Plus. Our subject matter experts are well-versed on the intricacies of the software and can assist in the seamless deployment and ongoing management of it. 

If you’re interested in learning more, simply contact us to start a conversation. We'll tell you more about our no-obligation, complimentary data storage assessment to help get the ball rolling.

Let's get 2021 started off on a strong note. Stay safe.