Linux redefined pricing in the operating system market. Now, Zmanda hopes to apply those same open source pricing pressures in the backup market. Zmanda claims that its backup system costs one-fifth to one-tenth as much as alternatives from Symantec and EMC. But is open source backup — at any price — ready for the enterprise?
In many cases, the answer is yes. Zmanda is a long-time MySQL partner — meaning that many MySQL database customers backup their systems using Zmanda. “We are to open source backup like MySQL is to the open source database market,” crows Chander Kant, CEO of Zmanda in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Sounds great, but can Zmanda really displace big-time storage companies like Symantec and EMC? Yes, no and maybe. As more and more companies make the move to Linux, MySQL, SugarCRM and other open source applications, they’ll be inclined to give Zmanda a look.
It will be more difficult, The VAR Guy believes, for Zmanda to displace Symantec and EMC in more traditional closed-source backup settings involving Exchange Server, SQL Server and Oracle. Plus, the company only has about 50 employees — not exactly an army that can trample Symantec and EMC.
However, it’s critical to note: Zmanda does support closed-source applications. And in a tight economy, cost-conscious customers may push back on traditional closed-source backup from big, established software companies. Kant estimates that Zmanda can cost one-fifth to one-tenth the price of traditional EMC and Symantec options.
That’s good news and bad news for VARs. Solutions providers won’t make much initial profit selling low-cost Zmanda software. But solutions providers that focus on selling Zmanda as a managed service can generate recurring managed storage revenue. And here’s an interesting twist: VARs can link Zmanda’s storage software to Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service (S3). In other words, VARs that don’t have their own network operation center (NOC) can depend on Amazon S3’s cloud.
Sounds pretty neat. But is it? The VAR Guy is all ears.
Tags: backup | EMC | MySQL | Open Source | open source backup | open source storage management | Symantec | Zmanda | Zmanda CEO Chander Kant
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I have been watching this story for the past 2 years. The Zmanda products looks promising, and there are quite a few success stories on their website. Perhaps now would be a good time to evaluate their product. Has the VAR Guy done this?
I think the link to Amazon S3 is a terrific idea, and one that allows simpler managed services. It is also a great way for businesses to gain off-site backups without effort and high cost.
Tristan: Other than spending too much time testing Web site widgets and open source code for his personal laptop, The VAR Guy doesn’t really do product reviews or vendor product tests. Alas, our resident blogger’s head is filled with lots of topics to write about — but testing products isn’t one of this strengths.
I offer online backup as a part of our managed service offering using an Amazon S3 backup product, SecoBackup. We looked at Zmanda, and went with SecoBackup in the end for their private label reseller edition. Here’s their web page -
http://secobackup.com/partner.html
SecoBackup does not charge for software (for clients or for central admin console), only for use of the amazon S3 service, so it made it doubly easy for us to launch our backup service using it - without any initial investment into software or hardware.
/Steve