Yesterday, IT resilience industry leader Zerto announced the launch of Zerto 7.5 for general availability. This latest version of the IT Resilience Platform provides deeper integrations with partners, new security and cloud capabilities and advanced analytics, helping customers navigate their cloud journey and alleviate security risks. Updates to the platform include expanded functionality with Microsoft Azure, including support for Azure Managed Disks, scale-sets and Azure VMware Solution (AVS); integrations with HPE StoreOnce Catalyst; certification and support for VMware vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO); and advanced analytics for reporting, planning and customization of disaster recovery and long-term data retention.
“Zerto is clearly a leading disaster recovery software for VMware customers. Enterprises seeking a high performance, bullet-proof disaster recovery solution to the cloud for their mission critical applications don’t need to look any further,” said Manoj Sharma, VP of product management at CloudSimple. “Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple was architected from the ground up to be fully compatible with such solutions, and we are excited to enable Zerto on our platform.”
[ Watch the VMblog video interview with Zerto at VMworld 2019 ]
Upgraded Partner Integrations
Cloud Agility with Microsoft Azure
Zerto 7.5 provides improved integration with Microsoft Azure to advance customers’ move to the cloud, expanding both current capabilities and delivering new ones. These improvements include support for Azure Managed Disks, which provide fail back from Azure Managed Disks to and from the cloud (premium SSD, standard SSD and standard HDD); further Integration with Azure VM Scale Sets to support ongoing replication as well as recovery workflows; and workload mobility and testing for Azure across Azure regions.
Additionally, upgrades including support for Azure Active Directory Managed Service Identity (MSI), which lets Zerto and Microsoft Azure users authenticate to Azure services and keep their credentials secure via the Microsoft Managed Service Identity (MSI), and itegration with Azure VMware Solution (AVS) by CloudSimple, which lets Zerto users take disaster recovery and mobility requirements for on-premises VMware environments to, from and between Azure with Azure VMware Solution (AVS) or to Azure natively to benefit from Azure’s scale and simplicity
“Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple brings the familiarity and simplicity of VMware into the Azure public cloud. Every IT pro using VMware can be instantly productive with minimal Azure competency,” said Peter Kerr, VP of global alliances at Zerto. “With Zerto, VMware customers gain immediate access to simple point and click disaster recovery and migrations between AVS, Azure Native and on-premises VMware private clouds.”
Integration with HPE StoreOnce Catalyst
Zerto 7.5 includes complete integration with HPE StoreOnce Catalyst that delivers source-side deduplication for more efficient use of storage and network resources. This adds more efficiency and flexibility for users looking to use HPE StoreOnce as a long-term retention repository to converge disaster recovery and backup.
“We’re delighted by the success that has been achieved at every stage of our ongoing partnership with Zerto. Since the outset, we’ve empirically proven that the Zerto IT Resilience Platform paired with HPE technologies can protect data in the most critical moments of need-from mere moments after an incident up to many years into the past,” said Chris Powers, VP and general manager of collaborative platform development at HPE Storage. “Now, with Zerto 7.5 and its complete integration with HPE StoreOnce Catalyst, we have a version that offers users improved long-term retention and data protection that is hybrid, intelligent and continuous. This platform update is the latest example of the shared vison between HPE and Zerto for hybrid data protection.”
VMware VAIO Program Member
Zerto recently announced the expansion of Zerto’s partnership with VMware, having joined the vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO) program, enabling new capabilities that are critical for highly secure environments.
Improved Security
Zerto knows security is a high priority for most organizations, so Zerto 7.5 delivers security enhancements for VMWare and public cloud deployments. These enhancements include support for Azure Active Directory Managed Service Identity (MSI) and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Since Zerto joined the vSphere APIs for I/O Filtering (VAIO) program, users will also now receive support for secure boot and storage-policy based management (SPBM), delivering data protection for highly secure environments.
Advanced Analytics for forecasting, reporting and customization
The Zerto Analytics Resource Planner, which provides real-time and historical insights and analysis of the protection status of applications and data, will also see an upgrade in Zerto 7.5. First, the Resource Planner now comes with journal sizing for storage capacity, which helps a user quickly understand and trade off storage capacity requirements with the amount of time data is protected. With Throughput Graphs, users can now view the throughput for the selected group of VMs over time to identify the I/O trends and properly size their recovery site. Finally, CSPs and enterprises will now be able to monitor storage and network usage by individual users from site to site or total outbound from a site.
