Quest hopes NetVault Backup 12 can vault into enterprise

While Veeam Software uses its VeeamON user conference this week to further its push into the enterprise, Quest Software is making its own attempt to go the same route with its NetVault Backup.

Quest upgraded the NetVault platform that it acquired from BakBone in 2010. That was before Dell bought Quest, and then spun it out in 2016 after the Dell-EMC merger.

With NetVault Backup 12.0, Quest has made the application more scalable – particularly for virtual machines. NetVault Backup 12.0 can run VMware plug-ins on any available proxy so users can back up VMs with a unified view and scale thousands of VMs. A new heuristic algorithm can load balance backup jobs across clients acting as backup proxies.

NetVault Backup 12.0 also supports application-aware storage array snapshots for the first time, although the only array supported now is Dell EMC SC Series (Compellent). Other enhancements include a single sign-on so users can log onto NetVault Backup by using Active Directory credentials, a push install feature to streamline product updates and installations, a new granular catalog search function and a new widget-based dashboard.

“We’ve decided to up the game with NetVault a little bit,” said Adrian Moir, Quest’s lead technology evangelist. “We wanted to go further into the enterprise space. We wanted to add more scale around protection of VMware, and give a single view of a larger environment by placing proxies under a single point of management. This is also our first entry into array-based snapshot. We’ve built a framework and will expand it, adding other arrays as quickly as we can.”

Also like Veeam, Quest is avoiding integrated systems in this age of converged data protection. Moir said Quest wants NetVault Backup to  work with as many backup target options as possible rather than package it on an appliance.

“We’re quite happy to run on anyone’s hardware,” he said. “If people want to use a specific hardware platform, that’s fine with us. We’d rather offer the flexibility rather than give them something that doesn’t match the rest of their infrastructure. An appliance might be right-fitted, but sometimes it doesn’t match everything else. We’d rather be flexible and let them match the rest of their environment.”