Now called Carbonite Server VM Edition, the latest expansion of Carbonite's backup capabilities signifies the vendor's strategic push into the midmarket.
Carbonite, which has expanded through acquisitions over the past few years, took another step toward providing data protection for businesses with the Carbonite Server VM Edition.
The new version of Carbonite Server adds backup for virtual machines to go with its physical server protection, and it's aimed at managed service providers, SMBs and midsize organizations.
Carbonite, based in Boston, began as a cloud backup service for consumers, but has built up its business since 2015 by acquiring Seagate's EVault cloud backup, Datacastle's endpoint backup, Double-Take software for high availability and Mozy cloud backup.
Christophe Bertrand, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass., said Carbonite backup has shifted from its historical market position.
"They're repositioning themselves from what used to be more of a consumer product into a more complex and more SMB, midmarket offering," Bertrand said.
He said Carbonite needed to add Virtual machine backup to entice midmarket customers.
All VM backups are managed from the Carbonite Data Protection Console.
"Obviously, protecting VMs is not the newest thing in the world. But the fact is, they are doing it in a very fully featured fashion," Bertrand said. "They have a pretty solid portfolio, and they have a high-availability component to it."
Obviously, protecting VMs is not the newest thing in the world. But the fact is, they are doing it in a very fully featured fashion.
Christophe Bertrandsenior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group
Customers can control all of their Carbonite backup workloads from the Carbonite Data Protection Console. All virtual machines are managed from this interface, which was designed as a single spot where users can create, manage, edit and delete all Carbonite backup and restore jobs.
"I think of it as an evolution in simplifying the purchase decisions for our customers, simplifying the experience," said Norman Guadagno, senior vice president of marketing at Carbonite.
Carbonite Server Backup VM Edition for Service Providers has additional features, allowing managed service providers to manage and protect their clients' data within their own clouds.
Bertrand said he would not be surprised to see Carbonite backup try to move up even further into the enterprise.
"I look at this and I'm thinking, 'Keep an eye on them,'" Bertrand said. "I see them going upmarket at some point."
