HYCU, Inc. is a pioneering enterprise software company specializing in data backup, recovery and monitoring for next-generation Enterprise Clouds. The company has moved beyond its roots in data protection unveiling HYCU Protégé, a cross-cloud data management solution, to reinforce it’s purpose-built backup and recovery solutions for on-premises and public clouds.
Following the general availability of its joint secondary storage solution, Nutanix Mine with HYCU, in late 2019, VMblog spoke with Subbiah Sundaram, VP of Products at HYCU to find out why its latest solution is gaining so much interest.
VMblog: When you announced support for Nutanix Mine last year at .NEXT in Anaheim, you mentioned that HYCU was helping to make infrastructure invisible. What’s been the reception since?
Subbiah Sundaram: We’ve been extremely pleased as you can imagine. For companies that understand the power of Nutanix and what the company has been able to accomplish for primary storage, their introduction of Nutanix Mine for secondary storage was met equally with significant interest. As we’ve said in the past, our joint customers’ are on a journey, and it’s never a one-stop process. But it still continues to be about simplification and helping customers simplify their infrastructure, whether that is primary or secondary storage. For customers using Nutanix Mine with HYCU, the feedback has been very positive. As one customer at a regional utility noted, “They chose HYCU and did not go with an alternate solution, because HYCU was simple, well integrated and intuitive to use.” Strong praise from an early adopter of Nutanix Mine with HYCU.
VMblog: Why do you think the feedback has been so positive? What about what you are doing with Nutanix Mine with HYCU is making such an impact?
Sundaram: HCI-based Backup Appliances while taking one step forward, created their own challenges. Some were adding yet one more silo to manage. Others were trying to make the solution tightly integrated into the primary storage platform. And, another was unnecessary redundancy in both software or hardware. For us, it’s always been about tightly integrating with the platform and making sure data protection functions as a complementary offering. It’s also about making sure you can scale as efficiently as possible based on business level requirements. Nutanix Mine with HYCU can be easily deployed, managed and scaled to meet all enterprise data requirements. That to us is extremely important.
VMblog: What would you suggest for companies looking at a secondary storage solution like Nutanix Mine?
Sundaram: There are essentially five things to consider when looking at a secondary storage solution like Nutanix Mine with HYCU.
Question One: How easy is it to manage? In particular, how many User Interfaces do you need to deal with? Are there additional software or infrastructure licenses you will need in order to deploy? And, importantly, does it provide an agentless experience? For all three of these, they directly impact the ease of overall management. At the end of the day, your choice should make the management of the secondary storage solution easier.
Question Two: How easy is it to scale? It’s one thing to choose a secondary storage solution, but you want to make sure the storage can grow modularly. At your cost and convenience. Also, it’s important that the software does not need to be redeployed as the system grown. Also, if you need to connect your secondary storage solution, make sure you understand upfront if there is an extra cost to leverage cloud storage.
Question Three: Is it best designed for manual or automated use? You can usually tell quickly, even if there are assurances to the contrary, by how many days or weeks you will need in training classes or how many professional services staff you may need in order to set up the system initially. Also, once set up, does the solution allow for self-service? More often than not, there may still be a need to have dedicated staff handling the solution versus being able to manage as part of a broader and tightly-integrated solution.
Question Four: What kinds of applications can it support and are there assurances for both protection and worst-case recovery times? It is one thing to be application aware but you want to make sure your secondary storage solution is both efficient and tightly integrated with the applications that are important to you. For example, if Nutanix Files is important, make sure your secondary storage solution can support it in as efficient a manner as possible.
Question Five: Does your secondary storage solution eliminate redundancy in your on premises platform? This is extremely important, and one of our fundamental beliefs that customers should leverage the power of the cloud platforms they need, be they on-premises or in the public cloud. The data protection and/or secondary storage solution in this case should eliminate the unnecessary need for redundancy in either features, both software or hardware. You can usually tell pretty quickly by checking to see in the case of Nutanix Mine if the solution supports both change block and change file tracking. Or, if snapshots can be used for both backup and recovery. Or, if Nutanix native replication can be used for WAN-free backup.
As we’ve said before, we see a new era emerging where customers want the best and trusted HCI infrastructure they have come to love and backup software that is built to make backup a service of the platform. At the end of the day, that is what Nutanix Mine with HYCU is all about. Backup becomes an invisible service of the Nutanix platform.
VMblog: Where can those interested in learning more about Nutanix Mine with HYCU get additional information?
Sundaram: Nutanix Mine with HYCU is available directly from Nutanix resellers and distributors and for purchase worldwide through HYCU authorized Global Partners, including Ingram Micro, Promark, and Carahsoft. Nutanix Mine with HYCU is easy to order as it’s available as a single SKU simplifying the ordering process. There’s also more information available on HYCU.com.
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Subbiah Sundaram, VP Products, HYCU, Inc.
Subbiah spearheads product management at HYCU. He has been instrumental in enabling the company to deliver HYCU Protégé along with the best in class multi-cloud solutions for Nutanix and Google Cloud. Prior to joining HYCU, Subbiah held senior executive positions at BMC, CA, DataGravity, EMC, NetApp and Veritas and has extensive experience in product development, planning and strategy. He holds a MS in Computer Engineering from the University of Iowa and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
