Archive360 mixes and matches cloud data archiving elements
Archive360's Archive2Azure previously supported file and message archiving. Now, users can archive Salesforce and healthcare data, among other elements, to the Azure cloud.
Archive360 is expanding its cloud data archiving and management platform, but also making it more selective.
The vendor's Archive2Azure is adding several different elements for customers to archive, including Salesforce and media.
At the same time, it's moving from a one-size-fits-all platform to a mix-and-match product. That change will lower the cost and reduce complexity for customers, said Bill Tolson, vice president of marketing at Archive360, based in New York. In adding the new elements, it made sense for Archive360 to restructure the platform.
"You only use what you need to use," Tolson said.
The Archive2Azure management platform stores data in its original format. It maintains data in the customer's own Azure tenancy.
Archive360 now offers eight cloud data archiving modules: databases, files, healthcare, legacy applications, media, messaging, Salesforce and SharePoint. The vendor previously offered just the file and messaging capabilities.
"In each one of the modules, there is competition," said George Crump, founder and president of analysis firm Storage Switzerland. "But there's nobody that I know of that can do it all into one system."
For example, HubStor, which Tolson labeled one of Archive360's closest competitors, offers archiving for file storage in Azure.
Drilling down into the archiving advantages
Two of the big benefits to the platform are a reduction in the cost of primary storage and the ability to incrementally add space for data in the cloud, Crump said.
Organizations often have to keep old data from a variety of the modules for compliance or regulatory purposes.
Bill Tolson
The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation was a big driver for the updates, Tolson said. GDPR includes a number of new rules regarding customers' data rights, privacy and protection.
"We're consolidating and managing a lot of data in a single repository, which makes it easier to respond to GDPR," Tolson said.
Salesforce users can buy additional storage from the software-as-a-service vendor, but there's more value in archiving, Tolson said. With Archive2Azure, customers can archive, manage and protect old Salesforce content, minimizing the risk of data deletion.
"Salesforce doesn't include any archiving capability at all," Tolson said.
Crump said there are few vendors that can archive Salesforce data, and he doesn't know of any that migrate it to Azure.
For media archiving, Archive360 platform users can transcribe, index and search audio and video files. Using machine learning, the platform understands and translates content into more than 50 languages, which makes searching faster and more accurate.
We're consolidating and managing a lot of data in a single repository, which makes it easier to respond to GDPR.
Bill Tolsonvice president of marketing, Archive360
Other new capabilities include the following:
archiving of old database applications to save money and space and improve performance;
information management and archiving of patient healthcare content, including imaging, for consolidation and security;
archiving and management of structured and unstructured legacy data in a searchable cloud platform; and
management, analysis and protection of SharePoint data.
The healthcare module has market potential, Crump said. While many think healthcare organizations don't want to use the cloud, Crump said he has found the opposite to be true.
"They don't want to store this massive [amount of] data on premises," he said.
Images in healthcare, for example, have grown in size considerably in just the last few years. In addition, for security and privacy benefits, Archive360 does not see any of the data archived, Crump said.
Logging the logistics
There's a small architecture difference from the previous version of Archive2Azure, so previous customers won't shift over automatically. Tolson said some, especially financial customers, will want the new platform, but others won't want to mess with what they have.
The updates became generally available on Monday. Archive360 had been working with beta customers for about six months.
Archive2Azure is subscription-based. The basic platform starts at $500 per month and rises based on total data under management.
Each cloud data archiving element is priced separately, and the cost is based on capacity, starting as low as $1 per terabyte, per month.
Crump cautioned that licensing and calculating costs could get complex. He noted that customers need to factor in the price of their Azure storage in addition to the Archive2Azure cost.
Archive360, which was founded in 2011, claims about 1,000 customers.
Bill Tolson
