Asigra Adds Cloud-To-Cloud Backup Of Google Apps

Asigra on Tuesday unveiled a new version of its Asigra Cloud Backup technology that provides cloud-to-cloud backup support for Google Apps.

The new Asigra Cloud Backup 12.2, which was unveiled at Asigra's partner this week in Toronto, also includes single-pass backup and recovery for Microsoft Exchange 2013 and enhances virtual disaster recovery capabilities.

Asigra's Cloud Backup software provides cloud-based data protection that can be sold as a stand-alone offering or as part of a managed services offering.

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The ability to do cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery for Google Apps fills a big hole in the Google technology, said Rajan Kapoor, CTO of Cartwheel, a New York-based MSP and Google Apps partner.

"This is very difficult to do in an automated way," Kapoor said. "If you are looking for a reliable way to back up and recover Google Apps data, here's a service that allows you to do it."

Data ownership and data portability are the two biggest issues enterprise CTOs face when moving to services like Google Apps, Kapoor said. "They lose some control, and are uncomfortable with that," he said. "Google is a great engineering company but is not known for customer service."

Therefore, customers moving to the cloud often demand control over their data, or they may delay their move until such control is available, Kapoor said.

"This move by Asigra is like a step back five to six years ago to when companies had control of their data," he said. "Customers can see how they can recover from data loss. They can test the recovery. This is very compelling. This makes it easier for MSPs like us to go into larger organizations."

Eran Farajun, executive vice president for Toronto-based Asigra, provides cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery for the Google Apps suite including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and Google Sheets.

Unlike the data backup solution included with Google Apps, Asigra provides a simple way to help users retrieve deleted, edited or corrupted information, with data from the backups restored back to Google Apps, Farajun said.

Other new capabilities include a granular backup of the data at the domain level, account level, or specific files or emails, as well as NIST FIPS 140-2-certified storage of the backups, he said.

NEXT: Other Enhancements To Asigra Cloud Backup 12.2

Also new with Asigra Cloud Backup 12.2 is a single-pass backup and recovery capability for Microsoft Exchange 2013.

"In the past, you would need to backup at the database level and the email level to get granular recovery," Asigra's Farajun said. "Now you can just backup the information at the database level and get granular recovery. There are very few backup products in the market that allow this."

Asigra Cloud Backup 12.2 also provides virtual disaster recovery by letting customers do incremental recovery into virtualized environments either locally or at their service provider's sites, Farajun said.

"We provide 80 percent to 85 percent of the capabilities of Veeam," he said.

Unlike Veeam, however, this capability is free to Asigra customers, and it is tightly integrated into the Asigra Cloud Backup platform, Farajun said. "Veeam only works in virtualized environments," he said. "Asigra works in virtualized, physical, and mobile environments."

PUBLISHED JULY 9, 2013