So I'm looking for a new backup appliance

[AFurryReptile]

Currently using a Barracuda Backup 390, and I hate it. I've hated since I inherited it two years ago, and I've finally outgrown the unit. Barracuda is slow to support new technologies, hesitant to allow users to do any sort of robust management, and generally not fun to work with on the phone.
Unitrends looks really great, and they are highly regarded around Spiceworks. But Spiceworks sometimes feels like a hivemind (think: Reddit), and I'm looking to see what my other options are. Possibly something a little less expensive. Here's what I'm looking for:

- Storage space, at least 2TB on the appliance. A virtual appliance would be fine too. Expandable storage, or the possibility to chain multiple devices together.
- Server 2012 and Hyper-V 2012 support. Would you believe it has been a year since release and Barracuda still can't support my VM server?
- Cloud backups. Inexpensive if possible. This is mostly my boss's wish, but we do backup branch offices and I'll admit that the feature is helpful.
- Instant recovery. I love the sound of immediately failing over to a virtual machine running on the appliance.
- Message-level Exchange backups.
- Some sort of market penetration. I feel like Barracuda is limited in features because nobody is using it; thus, they aren't developing it. This makes me nervous.

Other considerations I'm looking at are Dell AppAssure (seems expensive), Datto Alto (looks good, but I don't see many recommendations for it), and Symantec NetBackup (I've just hated Symantec for so long, I can't see recommending a product of theirs at this point.)

My network is a basic hub-and-spoke design, with a data center in the middle housing most of our servers and most of our critical applications. There are several branch offices connected via VPN that I would also be backing up some physical servers.

Any suggestions from my AT guys?

 

[drebo]

If your environment is entirely Windows-based, I would strongly suggest StorageCraft ShadowProtect. It's an image-based backup that takes 15 minute incremental snapshots. You can mount any snapshot as a drive or boot it up as a VM or convert it to a VMDK/VHD. It supports granular recovery of messages in Exchange via a great tool that mounts the Exchange database directly and can export to PST or recover directly to a live Exchange instance.

We've developed an appliance based on the product. If you'd like more information, I can PM some to you.

 

[MarkDCampbell]

Disclosure: I work at a vendor of backup appliances (that's all we do) called Unitrends (thanks for the shout-out above.) I'm the Chief Strategy/Technology Officer there. So I'm part of the hive mind.

With the disclosure out the way, would love to talk to you about the enterprise-class set of appliances we've developed along with software that supports 100+ servers, hypervisors, operating systems, applications, SAN/NAS, etc. along with why we've earned a 98% customer satisfaction rating year in and year out.

We sell physical appliances and virtual appliances - and I think we could do something to meet your price points - so if you have any interest, please don't hesitate to let me know. My e-mail is Campbell (like the soup) with the at sign and then just unitrends.com.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Thanks for the suggestion, Drebo. The more I look at ShadowProtect, the more I realize that there are quite a few vendors out there using it for their appliances. Please PM me a link to your product, if you would; I'm curious to see what you have to offer.

Mark - I'm impressed that you reached out to me here. I've already been in contact with Kathleen, but I appreciate the gesture

 

[AFurryReptile]

*edit*

Double post.