AHEAD helps us launch the Strategic Azure Storage Services Partner Program
AHEAD becomes the first Azure Storage Strategic Channel Partner by demonstrating their expertise in helping customers select the ideal Azure Storage, or Azure Storage ISV, Service to offer the ideal price / performance solution for their application and helping customers to migrate to Azure quickly and safely.
Enhance Your Data Protection Strategy with Azure Elastic SAN’s Newest Backup Options
As organizations adopt Azure Elastic SAN for scalable high-performance storage, we are pleased to announce the public preview of backup support via Azure Backup and Commvault. These fully managed solutions simplify data protection for Elastic SAN volumes, automating backup scheduling, restore point management, and data recovery. They help safeguard your volumes against data loss scenarios such as accidental deletions, ransomware, and application errors. Both the integration of Azure Backup for Elastic SAN and Commvault’s integration with Elastic SAN are in public preview and available for everyone to use. Both of these integrations are powered by Elastic SAN’s crash-consistent, storage native snapshots. Learn more about Elastic SAN here! Azure Backup Release Highlights The public preview of Azure Backup for Elastic SAN introduces several important capabilities designed to enhance your data protection strategy: Operational Tier Backup with Independent Lifecycle Each backup operation creates a Managed Disk Incremental Snapshot of your Elastic SAN volume. These snapshots are stored in locally redundant storage (LRS) in supported regions and exist independently of the original volume’s lifecycle. This means your backups remain available for recovery even if the original Elastic SAN volume is deleted, ensuring reliable data protection. The Elastic SAN volumes can be restored from these managed disk snapshots that are backed up by Azure Backup. Vaulting, immutability, and other capabilities are on the roadmap and will be incorporated into subsequent releases. Daily Restore Points Azure Backup supports up to 450 restore points with a daily backup schedule. This high number of restore points provides robust short-term retention, allowing you to recover data quickly to any previous state within the retention period. It significantly reduces the risk of data loss due to accidental deletions or other incidents. Retaining backups over 450 days is not available in this preview. Simplified Management Customers pick the number of daily backups that they want to retain, and Azure Backup does the rest including creating new backups and deleting oldest backups to match the retention setting. Configuration and monitoring are integrated with the Azure Business Continuity Center, giving you a unified and streamlined management experience. This automation allows you to focus on your core business activities while Azure handles the complexity of data protection. Important Cost Information During the public preview, the following cost structure applies: The Azure Backup Protected Instance Fee for Elastic SAN volumes is not charged Charges for Managed Disk Incremental Snapshots in the operational tier apply at standard Azure rates. The first snapshot that is exported will be a full snapshot. In summary, Azure Backup for Elastic SAN delivers a powerful and comprehensive backup solution. With features such as independent lifecycle backups, high-frequency restore points, and simplified management, you can confidently protect your Elastic SAN volumes from a range of data loss scenarios. Try this new capability to experience enhanced data protection for your workloads. Commvault Release Highlights Protecting Azure Elastic SAN Volumes with Commvault Our partners at Commvault continue to deliver meaningful innovation through deep integration with Microsoft Azure. In the below writeup, Commvault showcases how Azure Elastic SAN volumes are now protected within Commvault’s platform—bringing unified, enterprise-grade protection to performance intensive Elastic SAN workloads. If you're exploring scalable, resilient cloud storage with built-in data protection, this is a valuable read. Here are highlights from Commvault on their added support for Elastic SAN protection Thanks to a close partnership between Commvault and Microsoft, organizations can now take advantage of robust backup and recovery for Azure Elastic SAN storage. This deep integration means you benefit from the trusted protection and unified management of Commvault’s platform, now extended to Azure’s high-performance, scalable Elastic SAN solution. As a result, you can easily safeguard your mission-critical workloads in the cloud while enjoying the flexibility, centralized management, and resilience that Elastic SAN provides. Designed for Scalable, Resilient Cloud Environments With Commvault’s integration, organizations can protect Azure Elastic SAN volumes attached to Azure virtual machines (VMs) using the same trusted platform they rely on for comprehensive data protection for many other Azure resources. Key capabilities include: Snapshot-based protection:IntelliSnap support enables rapid, low-impact backups that minimize performance impact on production systems. The number of snapshots that can be retained is configurable based on your storage plan. Commvault offers a day-based retention plan that defaults to 30 days but can be extended indefinitely. Alternatively, you can retain Elastic SAN snapshots based on a snapshot count as well. Flexible recovery options: Full-VM and attach-disk restores are supported, including cross-region backups and restores. In cross-region restores, Elastic SAN volumes are automatically restored as managed disks. Broad platform compatibility: Both Windows- and Linux-based VMs are supported. Elastic SAN volume discovery requires PowerShell on Windows or Python 3 on Linux. Deployment and Configuration Considerations For optimal performance and streamlined protection workflows, enterprises should consider the following implementation guidance linked below. App-consistent restore points for Elastic SAN volumes are not currently supported. Attach-disk restores to a VM will result in managed disks regardless of source (primary or secondary copy). ESAN volumes will need to be connected to the VM via iSCSI. Accelerate Cloud Confidence with Commvault Azure Elastic SAN represents a significant advancement in cloud storage architecture. With Commvault’s integrated protection, enterprises can deploy this powerful capability to help make sure their data remains secure, recoverable, and compliant. To learn more about protecting Azure workloads – including Elastic SAN – contact your Commvault account team or visit our Azure protection documentation. The requirements for using this integration can be found here. Conclusion The Azure Elastic SAN team is committed to supporting your backup needs and giving you peace of mind as you run workloads on Azure. With both Azure Backup and Commvault integrations, you have flexible options designed for different scenarios: Azure Backup is best suited for Azure-native, single volume snapshots, offering a 450-day retention period, seamless integration, and simplicity within the Azure ecosystem. Commvault, on the other hand, excels at providing backups for multiple volumes attached to the same VM, as well as advanced enterprise features like granular recovery, an indefinite retention period and robust retention management. If you have any questions about which solution is right for you, please contact us at AzElasticSAN-Ex@microsoft.com —we’re happy to help.Maximizing Performance and Scalability with Azure Elastic SAN and Commvault
Partner post from our friends at Commvault Learn more about Elastic SAN here! Commvault is pleased to share that Microsoft Azure Elastic SAN support for Azure virtual machines (VMs) will be available in private preview following Microsoft Ignite 2024. This innovative offering allows Elastic SAN volumes to be attached to Azure VMs via iSCSI, providing enhanced flexibility and scalability for your cyber resilience and data protection storage needs. Michael Fasulo, Senior Director of Product Management at Commvault, expressed it best: “Throughout our 27+ years of partnership with Microsoft, our goal has always been to provide the broadest workload coverage and native Azure integration, providing unmatched scalability and cost effectiveness while delivering true continuous business. Our support for Elastic SAN amplifies our strong joint value to customers, embracing today's cloud first reality.” Benefits of the New Commvault Cloud Feature Azure Elastic SAN offers a powerful and flexible storage solution that can help you optimize your workloads and achieve your business goals. With its enhanced performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, Elastic SAN is the ideal choice for demanding applications. Commvault Cloud’s support for Azure Elastic SAN offers significant advantages for organizations seeking comprehensive cyber resilience solutions. Commvault's integration with Azure Elastic SAN simplifies backup and recovery processes, while our robust cyber resilience and data protection capabilities provide peace of mind and minimize the risk of data loss. Why Elastic SAN Adoption is Growing Organizations are increasingly adopting Elastic SAN due to its enhanced performance, scalability, and cost effectiveness. With the surge of AI data and the need to effectively protect these large volumes of data, this new Commvault Cloud functionality helps organizations securely and cost effectively solve the need to effectively protect and secure these mission critical workloads. Commvault Cloud’s enhanced coverage of Elastic SAN will ensure these workloads are cyber resilient and recoverable from cyber-attacks: High-Performance Computing (HPC): Deliver demanding HPC applications with exceptional performance. Large scale databases: Accelerate database operations and improve query response times. Big data analytics: Process and analyze large datasets efficiently. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): Streamline content delivery and improve the user experience. Learn more For a demo and to learn more about Commvault Cloud’s enhanced support of Azure Elastic SAN, please visit Commvault Cloud for Microsoft Azure | Commvault. To learn more about Azure Elastic SAN, visit Azure Elastic SAN documentation | Microsoft Learn or reach out to AzElasticSAN-Ex@microsoft.com.
