Storware: Enhanced Backup Suite

Summary

Storware Backup and Recovery software offers a comprehensive solution for data protection across diverse environments. Version 7.2 introduces enhanced features such as Zadara zCompute support and Backup Copy for OS Agent, bolstering data resilience. The suite simplifies backup management, allowing businesses to safeguard their critical data from a centralized platform.

Protect your data with the self-healing storage solution that technical experts trust.

** Main Story**

Data protection, right? In today’s world, it’s not just important, it’s absolutely critical. That’s where Storware Backup and Recovery comes in. It’s become a leading solution, offering a solid suite of tools designed to protect your data across just about any environment you can think of. Think virtual machines, containers, cloud instances, or even your classic on-premises applications – Storware aims to be a single, centralised spot for managing and protecting what really matters, your business data.

Now, as of April 17, 2025, the latest version available is Storware Backup and Recovery 7.2. And honestly? It’s a pretty solid upgrade, building on previous versions and bringing some significant improvements to data protection, flexibility, and efficiency. Let’s dive in and see what it’s all about, shall we?

Key Features and Benefits: Why Storware Might Be Your Next Backup Solution

• Agentless Architecture: Okay, let’s start with something really cool: it’s agentless! That means you don’t have to install agents on every single system you’re protecting. This is a game-changer for simplifying deployment and management, especially in those really complex environments. Trust me, it reduces overhead, and who doesn’t want that?

• Broad Platform Support: This is a big one. Storware supports a huge range of platforms. We’re talking VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Nutanix, Scale Computing Platform, Red Hat Virtualization, a bunch of cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and even containers like Kubernetes and OpenShift. Basically, if you’re running it, there’s a good chance Storware can protect it.

• Flexible Backup Destinations: You get to choose where your backups go. Local or remote file systems, NFS/CIFS shares, object storage, tape libraries… you name it. Or, you can tap into enterprise backup providers like Dell, IBM, Veritas, and Micro Focus. This lets you really tailor your backup strategy to fit your specific needs and, of course, your budget.

• Centralized Management: Nobody wants to juggle multiple consoles, right? With Storware, you get a user-friendly HTML5 web UI and CLI for centralized management. You can configure backup policies, monitor jobs, and kick off restores all from one place. It simplifies things and minimizes the risk of human error, which we all know can happen.

• Automated Disaster Recovery: Disasters happen. It’s a fact of life. But with Storware, you can define and automate the restoration of multiple VMs, ensuring business continuity. This simplifies disaster recovery and seriously reduces downtime. I remember one time, a small power surge fried a server at my old company, we had the entire application suite back up and running in under an hour because we automated the VM failover. It was a life saver!

• Snapshot Management: Snapshots are your friend! Storware supports creating and managing snapshots of your VMs, allowing for near-instantaneous recovery. This boosts your recovery point objectives (RPOs) and minimizes data loss if things go sideways.

• Advanced Security Features: Security’s got to be a priority, and Storware seems to get that. They’ve included things like air-gap backups, immutable backup destinations, encryption, and role-based access control (RBAC). These features help protect against cyber threats and, most importantly, ensure data integrity. These days immutable storage is a huge benefit, especially with all these ransomware attacks occurring.

• Enhanced Scalability: Storware is designed to grow with you. It has a multi-node architecture, so you can easily scale out by adding more nodes or scale up by allocating more resources to existing ones. This ensures the solution keeps pace with your evolving business needs.

The Evolution: From Version 7.0 to 7.2 and Beyond

Storware hasn’t been standing still, that’s for sure. They’re constantly adding new features and functionalities with each release.

Version 7.0 brought expanded platform support, including Debian and Ubuntu, along with some virtualization enhancements. Then, Version 7.1 introduced advanced cross-hypervisor restoration, making it easier to migrate between platforms like VMware and OpenStack. Which is nice, if you’re the kind of person to switch between Hypervisors.

And now, Version 7.2 builds on all of that. It adds support for Zadara zCompute, Backup Copy for OS Agent, ZFS backup destination, and some optimization for tape management and reporting.

In Conclusion: Is Storware Right for You?

Storware Backup and Recovery seems to be a solid option for businesses looking to effectively manage and protect their data. Its comprehensive features, flexible architecture, and ongoing development make it worth considering. With its focus on simplicity, security, and scalability, Storware aims to help businesses protect their data and ensure business continuity in today’s complex tech environment. Is it the only solution? Of course not. But, it’s definitely one to have on your radar. I’d say check out the trial, see how it fits into your existing infrastructure and security models. You can’t really lose by giving it a shot, can you?