I have been observing the IT industry for years, and although I see tremendous progress in it, I also notice another trend, decidedly less positive. I mean the growing complexity of technologies that companies must deal with. As it turns out, I’m not alone in this: according to a study conducted in May 2020 by the American analytical company Enterprise Strategy Group, as many as 64% of enterprises signaled that the IT environment is more complex than just two years ago. What does this have to do with data protection? More than it might seem at first glance. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
As the reason for this complexity, respondents cited an increasing amount of data, variety of endpoints, and an increasing number of various types of applications, both desktop and mobile. Moreover, as many as 26% of those surveyed outright admitted that their organizations suffer not only from IT system complexity but also – frankly speaking – they lack skills related to effective data protection. And after all, this last aspect is crucial for the functioning of every company in today’s times.
Users demand that applications and infrastructure work fast, be available around the clock, and the infrastructure itself should be scalable. These are understandable requirements because organizations are focusing on digital transformation – that is, using digital technology to drive new business strategies and models. The main goals related to digital transformation are increasing operational efficiency and providing better and more diversified customer service, taking into account different outreach channels.
Considering the complexity of systems, the need to ensure security for all data collected in the company, the increase in ransomware attacks, and all business requirements related to reaching and serving customers, it becomes necessary to implement a solution that can meet these challenges. Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance DP4400, which I’ll tell you a bit more about in a moment, can successfully do this.
For Small and Medium Businesses That Care About Data
Dell EMC IDPA DP4400 is a ready-to-use, pre-integrated, and converged 2U data protection appliance that the user can install and configure on-site. It is ideal for backing up virtual environments, workstations, physical servers, and databases.
DP4400 is a complete backup/recovery device, ready to work right after power is turned on. DP4400 includes:
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Data backup and recovery software
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Storage space for backups – with the best available Data Domain deduplication
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Central console
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Over 200 ready-made reports
Dell EMC IDPA DP4400 was designed to reduce the complexity of managing multiple data sets, point solutions, and vendor relationships. It is a converged solution offering complete backup, replication, deduplication, restoration, recovery, search, reporting and analytics (Search, Reporting and Analytics), cloud collaboration (Cloud Disaster Recovery), and long-term data storage in a single device.
Dell Technologies’ goal was to develop a solution that is easy to deploy, provides comprehensive protection for various applications and ecosystems, and is equipped with long-term data storage and disaster recovery functionality.
IDPA DP4400 provides diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to enable enterprises to better manage their existing environment, but also plan growth more efficiently. Online deduplication (the process is performed at the time of writing data to the system) increases efficiency by reducing disk space usage, locally and in the cloud.
Dell’s deduplication tools enable scaling IDPA DP4400 from 24 to 96 TB of storage in an efficient 2U enclosure and scaling to an additional 192 TB of data in the cloud. This model was designed to streamline backup and data recovery for a wide range of applications, physical servers, virtual machines, and multiple hypervisors, while minimizing protection environment complexity.
📚 Read the complete guide: Ransomware: Ransomware - czym jest, jak się chronić, co robić po ataku
Key Device Features
Model 4400, being the smallest device in the IDPA series, is therefore a simple all-in-one solution that will serve small and medium companies for protecting servers, laptops, and workstations, while offering advanced analytics and reporting. At the same time, it is easily scalable. For the 8 TB DP4400 model, capacity can be expanded by multiples of 4 TB up to a maximum of 24 TB, or by adding a Disk Expansion Kit in multiples of 12 TB, up to 96 TB. Similarly, the 24 TB starting capacity version can be supplemented with additional disk space in multiples of 12 TB, up to a maximum of 96 TB.
The key device features are:
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2U size
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Hardware layer – Dell PowerEdge R740 server
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Software: DDVE (Data Domain Virtual Edition) for DP4400, VMware vCenter Server, AVE (Avamar Virtual Edition), IDPA System Manager, Data Protection Advisor (optional), Data Store Server, Application Server, Search Index Master: Cloud Disaster Recovery (optional), Appliance Configuration Manager (ACM)
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Usable capacity from 8 to 24 TB, in 4 TB increments or from 24 to 96 TB, in 12 TB increments
I maintain constant contact with numerous customers and hear firsthand that IT environments are becoming increasingly complex due to more data, more endpoints of various types, and more applications of various types. It is obvious that the tools and applications used to manage these environments, especially in terms of protecting collected data, cannot be so complicated as to require specialized skills. However, ease of use cannot compromise a much more important property, which is the reliability of the entire infrastructure. Dell IDPA DP4400 has everything needed to simplify data protection environments and get the job done.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation has fundamentally changed the IT landscape, driving the diversity of applications and devices, which in turn generates data in unprecedented quantities. These factors make data protection harder than ever. The market is shaped by trends such as growth in unstructured data, increasing use of virtualization and public/private cloud architectures, expanding compliance regulations, and increasingly aggressive service level agreements. Meanwhile, organizations are requiring their data protection teams to reduce risk, downtime, and costs. All these changes have hit medium-sized companies particularly hard because these organizations traditionally did not have the resources, both in terms of infrastructure and personnel, to meet growing data needs. Dell IDPA DP4400 helps address these challenges in every aspect, from deployment to daily management, without the need for constant IT specialist involvement.
In the end, everything comes down to how effective the solutions being used are, meaning not only how well they fulfill their role, but also how many resources must be engaged for their implementation and maintenance. Dell EMC IDPA DP4400 supports the largest number of applications, is optimized for collaboration with VMware software, cuts Windows backup time in half. It requires 98% less bandwidth and allows writing seven times more streams, while providing 20% more space for data. All this despite its small size: 2U.
Grzegorz Gnych Vice President of the Board
Related Terms
Learn key terms related to this article in our cybersecurity glossary:
- Ransomware — Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that blocks access to a…
- Cloud Data Protection — Cloud data protection refers to a set of practices, technologies, and policies…
- Backup — Backup, also known as a backup copy or safety copy, is the process of creating…
- CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) — CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management) is a category of cloud security tools…
- Cybersecurity — Cybersecurity is a collection of techniques, processes, and practices used to…
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