Cloud Backup VL 2011

Info-Tech Research Group 1
Vendor Landscape: Cloud Backup

Match cloud economics with on-premise reliability.
The Cloud Backup Vendor Landscape is full of startups that are innovating
and iterating. However, best-in-class solutions do exist.
Introduction
IT leaders and storage managers tasked with
selecting an offsite, or cloud-based, backup
solution.
Any organization looking to reduce capital
expenditure and administrative burden on
backup storage, enhance disaster recovery
capabilities, or simply looking to learn more
about cloud backup vendors.
Define what distinguishes enterprise-class
cloud backup from consumer-grade solutions.
Make sense of how cloud backup vendors
differentiate themselves from competitors.
Shortlist cloud backup vendors based on
which best align with your business
requirements.
This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:
Executive Summary
The enterprise cloud backup market is still very nascent, with the oldest participating player being
founded in 2005, and most being founded after 2008. There are several basic features that define an
enterprise-class cloud backup solution though, and the future for the cloud backup space looks bright.
Among the products evaluated, CTERA, TwinStrata, and Nasuni took top honors and were named
Champions. The solutions evaluated provide terrific value for whats offered, with appropriate solutions
available for small, medium, and large businesses alike between the three vendors.
However, there are scenarios where solutions from other vendors are more appropriate, so defining
business requirements, and aligning that with the use cases presented is still an important step in the
nascent, but burgeoning, market.
Defining enterprise cloud backup: less reliance on the
Internet, which improves the end user experience
In a recent survey, conducted by Info-Tech Research Group,
respondents indicated they had almost two times more
Complete confidence in backup solutions that replicated to
the cloud vs. those that backup directly to the cloud. The same
respondents expressed more overall confidence in cloud
replication solutions than disk-to-disk arrays.
Though cloud backup vendors Info-Tech spoke to mentioned competing
against Mozy Pro and iDrive, these are not business-ready options.
An enterprise-class cloud backup solution must include an
on-premise cache of recently and frequently accessed files
to mitigate any issues due to inconsistent Internet connectivity.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Cloud Direct Tape Library D2D VTL Cloud
Replication
D2D Array
Complete High Moderate
Market Overview
Evolved from traditional online backup - where
you paid for an allotment of storage capacity and
backed up servers directly to the Web to on-site
appliances that compress, deduplicate, and cache
data before replicating to the cloud.
Enterprise cloud backup solutions are defined by
the ability to keep an on-site cache of frequently
and recently accessed data, while completing
incremental backups or snapshots to the cloud.
Currently a wide open space where few vendors
have more than a few dozen clients, but those
clients generate sizeable revenue.
Commoditization of core cloud backup features is
causing new service providers to differentiate
themselves by specializing in niche markets.
Youll be able to access files from anywhere, on any
device, making enterprise-class cloud backup as easy
to use as consumer-grade services.
A simplification of backup architectures as cloud
storage, both internal and external, matures. The use
of tape for archiving will continue to decline as
enterprises re-assess and refresh their backup
strategies.
Cross-cloud mirroring will become an industry
standard feature within the next two years, lending
additional reliability and redundancy.
How it got here Where its going
Overall, disk-to-disk backup is the most popular backup target, with 62% of survey respondents saying they
had recently implemented new backup capacity. However, the number of businesses deploying cloud
backup was 15%; equal to the number of companies deploying tape.
Cloud Backup Criteria & Weighting Factors
Vendor Evaluation
Vendor is committed to the space and has a
future product and portfolio roadmap.
Strategy
Vendor offers global coverage and is able to
sell and provide post-sales support.
Reach
Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will
be around for the long-term.
Viability
Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the
channels themselves are strong.
Channel
Product Evaluation
The solutions dashboard and reporting tools
are intuitive and easy to use.
Usability
The delivery method of the solution aligns with
what is expected within the space.
Architecture
The five year TCO of the solution is
economical.
Affordability
The solution provides basic
and advanced feature/functionality.
Features
The Info-Tech Cloud Backup Vendor Landscape
Champions receive high scores for most
evaluation criteria and offer excellent value.
They have a strong market presence and
are usually the trend setters for the industry.
Emerging Players are newer vendors who
are starting to gain a foothold in the
marketplace. They balance product and
vendor attributes, though score lower
relative to market Champions.
Innovators have demonstrated innovative
product strengths that act as their
competitive advantage in appealing to niche
segments of the market.
Market Pillars are established players with
very strong vendor credentials, but with
more average product scores.
For a complete description of Info-Techs Vendor
Landscapemethodology, see the Appendix.
CoreVault
CTERA
Nasuni
Panzura
StorSimple
TwinStrata
Zmanda
Every vendor has its strengths & weaknesses;
pick the cloud backup vendor that best suits your needs
Product Vendor
Features Usability Price Viability Strategy Channel
TwinStrata
Nasuni
CTERA
Panzura
StorSimple
Zmanda
CoreVault
Reach Platform Overall Overall
For an explanation of how Info-Tech Harvey Balls are calculated, please see the appendix.
What is a Value Score?
CTERA, Nasuni, and TwinStrata offer the best value
CoreVault
16
Panzura
45
StorSimple
70
Zmanda
83
Nasuni
93
TwinStrata
95
CTERA
100
Average Score: 71.6
The Value Score indexes each vendors product
offering and business strength relative to their
price point. It does not indicate vendor ranking.
Vendors that score high offer more bang for the
buck (e.g. features, usability, stability, etc.) than
the average vendor, while the inverse is true for
those that score lower.
Price-conscious enterprises may wish to give the
Value Score more consideration than those who
are more focused on specific vendor/product
attributes.
The cost estimates were generated using a real-life
scenario provided to Info-Tech Research Group by
a client. For more information, see slide 30.
On a relative basis, CTERA maintained the
highest Info-Tech Value Score of the vendor
group. Vendors were indexed against CTERAs
performance to provide a complete, relative
view of their product offerings.
Sources:
1. To calculate the Value Score for each vendor, the affordability raw score was backed out, the product scoring
reweighted, and the affordability score multiplied by the product of the Vendor and Product scores.
Champion
Every vendor in Cloud Backup meets the Basic Features, but
who goes above and beyond in the areas that matter to you?
If Basic Features are all you need from your Cloud Backup solution, the only true differentiator for the
organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs like cloud server
mountable volumes, Web-based file sharing,
The products assessed in this Vendor
Landscape
TM
meet, at the very least, the
requirements outlined as Basic Features.
All of the vendors go above and beyond the
outlined Basic Features, most even do so in
multiple categories. This section aims to highlight
the products capabilities in excess of the criteria
listed here.
The Basic Features What Does This Mean?
Backup frequency can be scheduled along
with a set start and end time.
Scheduled
Synchronization
The data center storing your data has
successfully passed a SAS 70 Type II audit.
SAS 70 Type II
Certification
Non-proprietary access methods like REST
APIs, WebDAV, and FTP must be available.
Standard Access
Methods
The service stores (and can automatically
delete) previous versions of files.
File Versioning
Only changed files or blocks are transmitted
after the first backup.
Incremental
Backups
Data is encrypted while being transmitted to,
and at rest in, the data center.
256-Bit Encryption
Local Cache
Storing frequently and recently accessed files
on-premise to reduce bandwidth usage.
Basic Features aside, vendors were evaluated on their
individual advanced feature offering
What We Looked For Features
Info-Tech scored each vendors features
offering a summation of their individual scores
across the listed advanced features. Vendors
were given one point for each feature the
product inherently provided. Some categories
were scored on a more granular scale with
vendors receiving half points (see Partial
functionality criteria).
Advanced features scoring methodology:
Bare Metal Restore
Restoring servers without an underlying OS
and applications installed.
File Sharing Web-based file sharing via a hyperlink.
Deduplication
Recognizing duplicated files and storing just
one copy.
Data Compression
Compressing the data before backup to
reduce bandwidth utilization.
Restore From
Anywhere
Ability to initiate restores from remote
locations via a graphical user interface.
Access From
Anywhere
Ability to access files from remote locations
via a graphical user interface.
Native File System
Backing up and storing files in their native file
system, without proprietary protocols.
Cross-Cloud Mirroring
Mirroring across geographically disparate data
centers or multiple cloud storage providers.
Agentless
Architecture
Backing up devices without software agents
on each device.
Service Level
Agreement
A contract with service availability guarantees.
Bandwidth Throttling
Controlling upload and download speeds to
manage bandwidth usage.
Cloud Server
Mountable Volumes
Cloud storage volumes can be mounted by
cloud servers for quick DR capability.
Info-Tech Recommends:
Mid-sized and large businesses that need to replace their NAS/SAN, especially those with highly
virtualized environments, should consider TwinStrata.
Product:
Employees:
Headquarters:
Website:
Founded:
Presence:
CloudArray
25
Natick, MA
twinstrata.com
2007
Estimated Run Rate: $1M
TwinStrata
Champion
TwinStrata has completed three rounds of funding, most
recently completing a debt round in February 2011.
Venture capitalist sits on the board of directors, lending
credence to the startup.
Overview
Cloud storage volumes can be attached to cloud server
instances for additional disaster recovery capabilities.
Physical and virtual appliances supported; virtual appliances
run on ESXi, XenServer, Hyper-V, and Amazon EC2.
Can back up to public and private storage clouds.
Can be provisioned as a storage tier for internal applications.
Strengths
Additional fee for 24x7 support.
Not capable of cross-cloud mirroring, bare metal restore, or file
sharing.
Challenges
Priced between $10,000 and $25,000
TwinStrata has produced a compelling alternative to
traditional storage that can replace your NAS or SAN
TwinStrata offers a virtual appliance, or one of four individual physical
appliances for provisioning a local cache. The virtual appliance uses
storage allotted to it from a NAS or SAN, and the physical appliances
support unlimited storage, with an artificial maximum of 50PB.
TwinStrata supports backing up to both public and private cloud
storage, with support for seven different cloud storage providers. The
appliances are capable of block-level, file-level, and application-specific
storage methods.
TwinStrata is attempting to provide a flexible solution that helps move the
mid-market off traditional storage, and doing it well.
TwinStratas products can be controlled through a Web-based
interface, API, or command level interface. Local and cloud storage
volumes are provisioned from the same applications, making the
appliance easier to administer.
TwinStrata does not perform all of the billing, leaving customers to deal
with separate invoices from each of the cloud storage providers used.
Mid-size and large enterprises that have outgrown their existing NAS or SAN, or have recently re-assessed
their backup architecture and settled on cloud backup. Also organizations that wish to store their data
outside of the United States, thanks to support for PEER 1s cloud storage service.
Ideal Profile:
With a reasonable price point, consumer-type sharing features and trusted cloud providers, CTERA is
easy to recommend for small and mid-sized businesses, and branch offices.
Product:
Employees:
Headquarters:
Website:
Founded:
Presence:
Cloud Gateway and Portal
20
Petach Tikva, Israel
ctera.com
2008
10 Distributors
CTERA
CTERA was founded by Liran Eshel and Zohar Kaufman, who
previously started SofaWare Technologies.
It has completed Series A and Series B funding rounds, both
funded Benchmark Capital.
Overview
Built-in deduplication, compression, and bandwidth
optimization.
Portal can backup to your own private cloud or public clouds.
Files can be accessed remotely, in native file format, and
restored to different machines in case of disaster.
Files can be shared with others via a hyperlink.
Strengths
A C200 or C400 Cloud Gateway is required; there is no virtual
appliance available.
Cannot currently operate at the hypervisor level.
Lack of direct sales can deter small and mid-sized businesses,
pushing them to competitors.
Challenges
Champion
CTERAs solution is the most comprehensive in the
marketplace, and worth a look from any SME
CTERA offers multiple pieces of hardware for setting up a local cache:
CloudPlug, C200 and C400. The C200 and C400 are self-contained
devices, and the C400 supports up to 12TB of raw storage capacity.
CTERA Portal provides administration and configuration of the local
appliance, and snapshots to cloud storage providers. The Web-based
interface is easy to use, providing insight into storage capacity use by
individual devices.
CTERA is leading on advanced cloud backup features and has laid out a
strong roadmap ahead.
CTERA does not have its own data centers, instead backing up your
data to the cloud storage provider of your choice.
You receive one bill from the backup service provider, not from each
cloud storage provider in use.
Small and mid-sized businesses that have outgrown their existing NAS or SAN, have recently re-assessed
their backup architecture, and settled on cloud backup, or do not currently own a NAS/SAN.
Ideal Profile:
CTERA C200 or
C400 Appliance
Nasuni positions itself as a replacement for file servers, and should only be used this way. A strong
focus on unstructured data, native file formats, and low pricing makes it very suitable for this role.
Product:
Employees:
Headquarters:
Website:
Founded:
Presence:
Filer
< 50
Natick, MA
nasuni.com
2009
42 Customers Listed on Website
Raised $23M in VC Funding
Nasuni
Champion
Nasunis founders have their history as CTOs and with
traditional storage vendors.
Nasuni has raised $23M in funding from venture capital firms
like Flybridge, North Bridge, and Sigma Partners.
Overview
Variety of top-tier cloud providers to choose from.
Full Active Directory integration.
Built-in WAN optimization to compress before transport.
Automatic software upgrades without IT intervention.
One of the least expensive solutions.
Strengths
Performance in large enterprise environments is less than
stellar.
Can initiate a restore from anywhere in the world, but cannot
access files via the Web interface remotely.
Virtual appliance can only scale up to 2TB on VMware.
Not suitable for backing up virtual machines or databases.
Challenges
Nasuni has clear focus of where its solution fits in the cloud
backup market, and makes no bones about it
Nasuni provides a virtual appliance pre-configured to provide 128GB of
on-premise cache, and can be scaled to provide up to 2TB on VMware
and 16TB on Xen. If the cache is full, the Filer begins removing files
from the cache. These files are moved to your cloud storage provider
until theyre accessed again.
Nasuni currently supports six different public cloud storage providers.
The Filer encrypts all files while on-premise, in-transport, and after
hitting the cloud.
If youre looking to expand or replace file servers, Nasuni is worth a look
even at a departmental level.
Nasunis interface is available through a Web browser, where local and
cloud storage volumes are provisioned. The interface has been given a
design thats easy to use, with an emphasis on quick, at-a-glance
statistics through a colorful dashboard.
Nasuni performs all the billing, so you have only one invoice to pay.
Businesses that are not interested in using cloud backup for snapshots of virtual machines, or block-level
storage. Nasuni Filer is ideal for small and mid-sized businesses replacing their NAS, or purchasing a NAS,
for storing unstructured data only, and providing access to those files from remote locations.
Ideal Profile:
Nasuni Filer
StorSimple is mostly targeted at mid-sized and large enterprises, and any company with large content
(i.e. CAD drawings). Its well suited to the task and hits most of the advanced features desired.
Product:
Employees:
Headquarters:
Website:
Founded:
Presence:
Hybrid Cloud Storage
45
Santa Clara, CA
storsimple.com
2009
$21M VC Funding
StorSimple
Innovator
StorSimple has raised funding from notable venture capitalist
firms like Redpoint Ventures and Index Ventures.
StorSimples founders, Ursheet Parikh and Guru Pangal, come
from backgrounds in WAN optimization and storage.
Overview
Can use multiple cloud storage providers concurrently, and
synchronize volumes across storage clouds.
Automatic tiering across solid state disks, server attached
storage, and cloud storage.
Certified for Windows Server 2008 R2 and VMware Ready.
Volumes optimized based on type of data stored.
Strengths
One of the more expensive solutions available.
Bare metal restore only available for VMware images, file
sharing, restore anywhere and access anywhere.
Challenges
StorSimple is currently the only vendor that supports cross-
cloud mirroring, setting the trend
StorSimple provides a choice of several physical appliances, with
capacities ranging from 10TB to 200TB. Recently and frequently
accessed files are cached on-premise, on one of two storage tiers.
Older and infrequently accessed files are archived to cloud storage.
StorSimple currently supports four different public cloud storage
providers, as well as private cloud storage. All data is encrypted while
on-premise, in-transport, and after hitting the cloud. Customers have
full control over the private key.
Cross-cloud mirroring will become an industry standard, but StorSimple has
more enterprise-level features in store.
Administration of StorSimples appliances can be performed via a web-
based interface or through storage management consoles on a
desktop OS.
StorSimple does not perform all of the billing, leaving customers to
handle invoices with each cloud storage service used.
Mid-sized and large organizations with Windows and VMware environments, feel more comfortable
synchronizing backups across multiple cloud storage providers, and arent concerned about providing
access from remote locations (outside of an office or VPN).
Ideal Profile:
StorSimple 1010, 5010
or 7010 Appliance
Small and mid-sized businesses with heterogeneous environments, and content with using Amazon
as the cloud storage provider, should look at Zmandas Amanda Enterprise solution.
Product:
Employees:
Headquarters:
Website:
Founded:
Presence:
Amanda Enterprise
50
Sunnyvale, CA
zmanda.com
2006
2,000+ Customers
Zmanda
Market Pillar
Zmandas solutions are based on the source code from the
Amanda open source project.
It was founded in 2006 and has completed three rounds of
funding, raising $16M.
Overview
Specialized software agents for Windows servers, Linux
servers, MySQL, Oracle, vSphere/ESXi, etc.
Files are stored in their native formats on Amazon S3.
Strengths
Each software agent must be purchased separately, driving up
capital expenditure and operating expenses for yearly
subscriptions.
Can only backup to Amazon S3 currently.
24x7 support is only available with a Premium subscription.
Challenges
Zmanda is one of the top solutions for heterogeneous
environments thanks to heavy agent specialization
Zmanda provides a virtual appliance thats capable of live backups of
various applications like Exchange, SharePoint, and MySQL.
Unfortunately, each of these applications requires an agent installed, all
of which are purchased independently at roughly $300 per year, per
agent.
Zmanda only supports backing up to Amazon currently. Info-Tech
believes support for other cloud storage providers is coming soon.
That specialization comes at a price though, with each agent having a yearly
subscription fee attached to it.
Administration of Zmanda can be done from a desktop client or Web-
based interface. The desktop client looks like a mix of antiquated,
cluttered prompts paired with modern graphics. The templates provided
for scheduling are not very user friendly.
Zmanda performs all the billing, so you only have one bill to pay.
Small, mid-sized, and large businesses with heterogeneous environments (Linux, Windows, Oracle, etc.),
do not require deduplication, and are set on using Amazon as their cloud storage provider.
Ideal Profile:
Amanda
Enterprise
Large, distributed organizations should look at Panzura to solve cross-site data synchronization
problems, while enabling cloud backup. Not a solution to be considered by single-site businesses.
Product:
Employees:
Headquarters:
Website:
Founded:
Presence:
Alto Cloud Controller
26
San Jose, CA
panzura.com
2008
Raised $18M From VCs
Panzura
Emerging Player
Panzura targets large, distributed enterprises with storage
appliances that synchronize designated data with each other,
and also to cloud storage providers.
The number of employees has grown by 140% in the last year.
Overview
Ideal for distributed organizations with a need for collaborating
on files, or making data available across locations.
Supports public and private cloud storage, and backing up to
tape.
Available as a physical or virtual appliance.
Strengths
Not designed for small and mid-sized businesses. Panzura is
clear that its market is Fortune 1000, globally distributed
companies.
Difficult to identify existing customers or channel partners.
Product has only been in the market since June 2010.
Challenges
Panzura has a very clear market of large enterprises that need
to help foster collaboration mixed with cloud backup
Panzuras solution is available as either a physical or virtual appliance.
Because of the nature of the solution and its target audience, it includes
a feature Panzura calls Collision Control, which locks a file for editing if
another user has it open.
Panzura currently supports four different cloud storage providers, and
is clear about its focus: enabling LAN-speed file access despite the
distance between offices.
Panzuras target market will likely see its solution as very compelling,
especially those with many changes to data on Alto Cloud Controllers.
Panzuras administration interface contains a colorful mix of graphs on
various data points, such as data throughput, system disk status, and a
bandwidth summary. It also provides a quick view on how much
storage is used and available, and how much has been saved thanks
to deduplication.
Large, globally dispersed organizations that are looking to create a private storage delivery network that
backs up to a public or private storage cloud. Small businesses will likely find the appliances too expensive,
though some mid-sized companies may find Panzura meets their needs.
Ideal Profile:
Panzura Alto Cloud
Controller
(Physical or Virtual)
At such a high cost, only companies that require high security, like FIPS 140-2 software and ISO
27001 certifications, should consider CoreVaults solution.
Product:
Employees:
Headquarters:
Website:
Founded:
Presence:
Cloud Backup Online
17
Oklahoma City, OK
corevault.com
2005
Endorsements from bar and medical
associations in 15 states
CoreVault
CoreVault is an offshoot of a telecom provider that was looking
to solve its own backup issues.
Its agentless solution discovers targets on the network to be
backed up, backs up to disk, then replicates to the cloud.
Overview
Built-in deduplication and continuous data protection
capabilities.
Software agent is FIPS 140-2 certified (PDF link).
Capable of storing unlimited retentions and bare metal
restorations.
Snapshots can be restored to CoreVaults vCloud service as
cloud servers.
Strengths
Two data centers, but both located in Oklahoma.
Multiple storage tiers that lead to differing restoration times
and service costs.
No service level agreement; only available to some clients.
Antiquated and cluttered user interface.
Challenges
Emerging Player
CoreVaults solution is expensive for a reason its highly
secure, and built for organizations that need that security
CoreVault provides software that is installed on a designated server,
which backs up designated data and then replicates it to CoreVaults
cloud storage service.
CoreVault is very focused on highly regulated industries - like financial,
healthcare and legal - thanks to the FIPS 140-2 certified software
agent. It mostly targets organizations in the fifteen states where it
receives endorsements from professional associations.
CoreVault is a traditional online backup provider that has restructured as a
cloud backup provider, and includes a managed service approach.
CoreVaults administration software is cluttered and looks antiquated,
with wizards for creating backup sets and retention rules that could use
a user experience overhaul..
CoreVault performs all the billing, so you only have one bill to pay. This
is offset by having to use CoreVaults own cloud storage service, which
is the most expensive service reviewed in the Vendor Landscape.
Small and mid-sized companies that require strict security certifications, like FIPS 140-2 and ISO 27001,
both of which CoreVault has obtained, and clearly differentiates it from competitors.
Ideal Profile:
CoreVault
Software Agent
Different use cases bring different vendors and solutions as the best fit to the
table. Dont ignore your needs when looking at the budget.
Focusing on use cases causes different Champions to rise to
the top of the Cloud Backup Vendor Landscape
Use Case
Private Cloud Support
1
2
3
Mount Storage to Cloud IaaS Servers
Unstructured Data/NAS Replacement
Global, Distributed Enterprises
*Separate product, not evaluated
Organizations with strict compliance requirements, but that want to take
advantage of cloud economics, still have a choice.
If you prefer to keep backups in a private storage cloud, only a
few solutions fit your requirements
Use Case
Private Cloud Support
1
2
3
Private Cloud
Zetta provides a software agent-based solution that
backs up directly to its own data centers.
Files are stored in native file format, fees charged are
exclusively based on storage usage, and you can
maintain up to a seven year version history.
Zetta even provides one critical advanced feature
identified, cross-data center mirroring between their
east coast and west coast data centers. All this at very
aggressive pricing.
There are many other solutions available, but those from Zetta
and Gluster did not meet the Basic Features criteria
Zettas direct-to-cloud approach does not provide the level of availability and
redundancy required, and Gluster substitutes the filesystem entirely.
Glusters virtual appliance is targeted as a
replacement for your existing NAS, and not as a
cloud backup solution.
You can install Gluster as a bare-metal storage
software appliance, and on Amazon EC2 with EBS
storage, and set this configuration up for geo-
replication across the Internet.
It works as a do-it-yourself cloud backup solution for
organizations that would prefer . provides a software
agent-based solution that backs up directly to its own
data centers.
Ultimately, Zetta was excluded due to the lack of
an on-premise cache. Companies cannot rely on
the Internet to provide access to multi-gigabyte
files within a reasonable amount of time.
Due to Glusters focus as a NAS replacement, it
was excluded from the Vendor Landscape. Its a
very innovative solution though and appears to
have a bright future in the storage market.
Appendix
How we calculated the cost
An Info-Tech client provided a scenario for comparing
the cost of cloud backup solutions in order to
determine the value provided.
The scenario presented included an existing SAN,
being used primarily as a file server, which requires
costly upgrades to increase the capacity. The current
usage is 1TB out of the 1.3.TB capacity.
Storage growth is projected to be 10% year over year,
which was also factored into the five year cost
calculation.
Info-Tech Research Group used the Cloud Storage
TCO Calculator to account for all possible costs
including hardware, software licensing, data transfer
and storage usage. Cloud backup solutions vary widely in cost
Source: Info-Tech Research Group
Cloud Backup Total Cost of Ownership Scenario
Example graph from Cloud Storage TCO Calculator
Methodology Vendor Landscape & Harvey Balls
Info-Tech Research Groups Vendor Landscape market evaluations are a part of a larger product selection solution set, referred to as a Select
Set.
From the domain experience of our analysts, a vendor/product shortlist is established. Product briefings are requested from each of these
vendors, asking for information on the company, products, technology, customers, partners, sales models and pricing.
Our analysts then score each vendor and product across a variety of categories. These scores are then weighted according to weighting
factors that our analysts believe represent the weight that an average client should apply to each criteria. The weighted scores are then
averaged for each of two high level categories: vendor score and product score. A plot of these two resulting scores is generated to place
vendors in one of four categories: Champion, Innovator, Market Pillar, and Emerging Player.
Analysts take the individual scores for each vendor/product in each evaluation category and convert those to a scale of zero to four whereby
exceptional performance receives a score of four and poor performance receives a score of zero. These scores are represented with Harvey
Balls, ranging from an open circle for a score of zero to a filled in circle for a score of four. Harvey Ball scores are indicative of absolute
performance but are not an exact correlation.
Individual scorecards are then sent to the vendors for factual review, and to ensure no information is under embargo. We will make corrections
where factual errors exist (e.g. pricing, features, technical specifications). We will consider suggestions concerning benefits, functional quality,
value, etc; however, these suggestions must be validated by feedback from our customers. We do not accept changes that are not
corroborated by actual client experience or wording changes that are purely part of a vendors market messaging or positioning. Any
resulting changes to final scores are then made as needed, before publishing the results to Info-Tech clients.
Vendor Landscapes are refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.
Methodology Value Index
Info-Tech Research Groups Vendor Landscape market evaluations are a part of a larger product selection solution set, referred to as a Select
Set.
The Value Index is an indexed ranking of value per dollar as determined by the raw scores given to each vendor by analysts. To perform the
calculation, Affordability is removed from the Product score and the entire Product category is reweighted to represent the same proportions.
The Product and Vendor scores are then summed, and multiplied by the Affordability raw score to come up with Value Score. Vendors are
then indexed to the highest vendor by dividing their score into that of the highest scorer, resulting in an indexed ranking with a top score of 100.
The Value Index calculation is then repeated on the raw score of each category against Affordability, creating a series of indexes for Features,
Usability, Viability, Strategy and Support, with each being indexed against the highest score in that category. The results for each vendor are
displayed in tandem with the average score in each category to provide an idea of over and under performance.
The Value Index, where applicable, is refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.

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Info-Tech Research Group 1

Vendor Landscape: Cloud Backup

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