Western Digital has linked its IntelliFlash all-flash and hybrid disk/flash arrays to Veeam’s storage API, to produce a storage snapshot plug-in for Veeam and protect vSphere VMs more quickly.
The solution uses Veeam Availability Suite to facilitate Veeam’s backup operations in vSphere environments by eliminating backup window bottlenecks. This minimises the impact on applications during the VM stunning process, according to WD.
An ESX virtual machine is quiesced (stunned) when a backup is taken. Obviously this can cause IO latency problems as IO requests coming in to the stunned VM are stored and run when the backup completes. Snapshot-based protection reduces the duration of VM stunning duration as they are quicker to complete than a backup process.
WD said the plug-in improves recovery point objectives. It gives IntelliFlash users access to Veeam features such as granular recovery with Veeam Explorer for Storage Snapshots, agentless backup, Instant VM Recovery, Veeam DataLabs Secure Restore, SureBackup and SureReplica.
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IDC lists Western Digital in the ‘Other’ category of storage array suppliers. IntelliFlash arrays compete with a long list of all-flash arrays from other vendors: Apeiron, Dell EMC, E8, Excelero, Hitachi Vantara, HPE, Huawei, IBM, Kaminario, NetApp, Pavilion Data Systems and Pure Storage, for example.
This Veeam integration is not a game changer for WD. Still, anything that removes potential sales objections should be welcome.
