As the amount of human and system-generated data continues to grow at a rapid pace, IT organizations are facing increasingly distributed and fragmented sources of data. On the one hand, placing data services locally at the source in edge or remote branches can help to optimize application performance. On the other, supporting and protecting data at remote locations brings unique challenges for IT administrators. Data at edge sites can be difficult to maintain, recover, and manage, especially with limited or no IT administrators present locally – not to mention it contributes to the broader problem of mass data fragmentation.
When looking for modern backup and recovery, Enterprise IT organizations need capabilities that address the following challenges:
- Fragmented data silos- The complexity of managing multiple sets of infrastructure and data management systems is multiplied when these systems are deployed at multiple locations. Consolidating the number of systems to support and deploy is essential to reducing costs and complexity for edge solutions.
- Inconsistent data management operations- Data productivity is maximized when centralized staff has broad access to a consistent set of tools. Data must be visible at all locations, with the ability to manage policy requirements across an enterprise.
- Limited data retention and recovery capabilities- Application data at the edge may need to be archived or tiered directly to the cloud for cost effective archiving of cold data. Without effective backup and recovery, a site failure can lead to unrecoverable data loss for local applications.
What if you could get the best of both worlds?
Cisco and Cohesity recognize the challenges of meeting the performance needs of local applications while effectively managing data and backup solutions at remote sites. In partnership, we jointly provide validated solutions to better address these challenges. Our validated design guide for Cisco HyperFlex and Cohesity DataProtection has been updated to include modern backup and recovery for the remote office/data center edge. This solution is ideal to bring compute to data and maximize the productivity of data at the enterprise edge.
Consolidating Fragmented Silos
A pressing pain point for remote deployments is the ongoing support of multiple systems. A key challenge is the work associated with implementing and maintaining multiple physical appliances from a variety of vendors while working with limited resources. Cisco HyperFlex Edge brings an enterprise-class feature set to your edge environments with a flexible, cost-effective solution that can be deployed and centrally maintained at a massive scale. When paired with Cohesity software on a Cisco HyperFlex Edge virtual machine, a robust set of backup capabilities is offered without the need for deploying and managing additional devices. Cohesity DataPlatform Virtual Edition consolidates the functionality of multiple point products including backup software, media servers, master servers, target storage, and cloud gateways onto a single virtual machine at the edge.
Consistency with Centralized Operations
By using Cohesity DataPlatform Virtual Edition on a Cisco HyperFlex Edge system, you are offered a complete data solution built on certified Cisco UCS servers that is optimized for edge and remote sites. Combined together, this joint solution makes it easy to deploy scalable data management services with a consistent set of capabilities across your organization. For example, the ability to leverage universally addressable data protection copies from anywhere simplifies deploying templates and clones for remote virtual machines. Centralized staff at core sites can remotely view data and implement policy for backup and recovery. Additionally, updates can be centrally administered non-disruptively, across edge locations, giving backup with Virtual Edition the same business continuity that you can expect from Cohesity DataPlatform at core datacenter sites. Finally, Cohesity has integration for Cisco Duo single sign-on, providing secure management access for remote site locations.
Seamless Data Retention and Recovery
The native multi-cloud integration of the Cohesity DataPlatform provides customers a broad set of options to meet their business requirements for data retention and recovery. Edge sites can have cold data archived directly in preferred cloud environments, and disaster recovery can be implemented at core sites, or from cloud locations. The Cisco Validated Design demonstrates a solution that supports local recovery of single or multiple virtual machines while also providing a disaster recovery option in case of a total loss or failure at the edge site. With Cohesity’s instant mass recovery, you can rapidly recover all the virtual machines at a remote site instantly, from the cloud of your choice.
Together, Cohesity and Cisco simplify the challenges of remote office and edge data center deployments. The integrated solution provides a platform for compute and applications for your data, along with the consolidation of your data management platforms, remote management, and seamless data retention and recovery. You can learn more about our joint solutions here.
