ExaGrid, a leading provider of hyperconverged secondary storage for backup, and Comtrade Software, developer of HYCU, - intelligent application data protection - have partnered to offer a backup-application-to-backup-storage solution purpose-built for virtualized environments. Comtrade Software's HYCU and ExaGrid's scalable disk-based backup appliance together provide an elegant yet simple end-to-end data protection solution for IT data centers.

HYCU auto-detects applications running in virtual machines (VMs) and makes them transparent to the infrastructure teams. With this new level of visibility, HYCU ensures that no critical applications are left unprotected - a key challenge for enterprises embracing cloud and HCI architectures in their modern data centers. Since HYCU creates application-specific recovery workflows, IT administrators can easily back up applications and recover data in minutes.

ExaGrid complements HYCU with its approach to backup storage that includes a unique landing zone to deliver the fastest backups and avoids data rehydration to deliver the fastest restores and VM boots. ExaGrid's scale-out architecture ensures a fixed-length backup window as data grows, and various size appliance models allow customers to buy what they need as they need it, avoiding disruptive and costly forklift upgrades. Customers are able to mix older and newer appliances in the same scale-out system, eliminating product obsolescence and protecting their IT investment up front and over time.

The combined solution delivers key benefits to customers, including:

• One click Application Aware backup with dynamic application discovery
• Scale-out backup storage expands up to a 2PB full backup while delivering consistent performance
• Straightforward deployment
• Simple setup and incremental forever backup efficiency