Asigra Cloud Backup Evolved 14
Veteran data protection vendor Asigra beat out new and older competition with its Cloud Backup Evolved product, highlighted by its ability to shield backups from ransomware.
Gold winner in Storage magazine and SearchStorage's 2018 Products of the Year in backup and disaster recovery software and services category.
Asigra Cloud Backup Evolved 14 converges enterprise data protection and cybersecurity. It contains embedded malware engines in the backup and recovery stream to prevent ransomware from getting into backups. Those engines identify a virus, quarantine it and notify customers.
The product fights what Asigra deemed the "Attack-Loop," which is when ransomware infiltrates backups and stays dormant until data is recovered back to the network following an attack on primary storage.
Asigra, based in Toronto and founded in 1986, was an early innovator in data protection. It last made the winner's circle three years ago when its Cloud Backup 13 won silver in this category.
Cyberdefense features in Asigra Cloud Backup include bidirectional malware detection, zero-day exploit protection, variable repository naming and two-factor authentication, according to the vendor.
Asigra Cloud Backup also enables compliance with several articles of the recently enacted GDPR, including a citizen's right to erasure. Other features include data protection for Office 365 Groups, a new management console with RESTful APIs, instant recovery and container-based deployment and protection.
Judges scored Asigra Cloud Backup Evolved far higher than any other product in this category, praising its innovation and functionality.
"Best data protection I have seen anywhere in preventing ransomware from infecting backups or erasing them," one judge wrote. "Very complete comprehensive data protection solution at a very low cost."
Another judge complimented Asigra's "top-level" ransomware defense and unique pricing that is based on usage, not protection.
Asigra offers multiple pricing models. The least expensive is the Recovery License Model, which bills on a sliding scale. The higher the percentage of data recovered, the greater the per-gigabyte cost. The highest rate is 50 cents per gigabyte, per month for customers who recovered 25% of their data over the previous six months.
Asigra Cloud Backup requires backup hardware or networking or cloud infrastructure to operate. The vendor said its software adapts to available IT resources, but needs one or more storage repositories to hold backup data.
