Datto upgrades flagship platform, unveils all-flash backup appliance

The all-flash SIRIS 3 X1is available only with a TB drive, with the plan being to roll over further models if and when they meet customers' price/performance needs.

SIRIS_3_Front_Angled

Datto’s SIRIS 3

Today, at their DattoCon 2016 event in Nashville, Datto is making a pair of product announcements. They are upgrading their flagship SIRIS 3 platform. They are  also announcing the SIRIS 3 X1, an all-flash device for backup and disaster recovery [BDR].

There are a lot of updates to the SIRIS 3 platform.

“We are expanding the OS set we support, by adding Mac to Windows and Linux, which will help us get into additional verticals that emphasize Mac,” said Sue Mosovich, technical marketing engineer at Datto. “We are also transitioning our virtualization platform in the device to KVM.” It had been Oracle VirtualBox before.

“We are also bringing in features from some other products,” Mosovich added. “From our ALTO family, we have added hybrid virtualization, where you bring up a node in the Datto cloud but run it locally. Our Advisory Council asked us to bring this into SIRIS because it provides more choice. From our Datto NAS functionality, we have also added the ability to create shares on SIRIS.”

Screenshot verification functionality for backup snapshot, which has previously only been available in Windows, is now also available for Linux. Other new functionality includes the ability to do iSCSI restore, and agentless backup now being available for physical environments as well as virtual.

“We have expanded capacity to 60 TB from 48 TB,” Mosovich said. The newest Intel chips have been added as well.

A new billing option is also being introduced.

“With this new billing model – Infinite Cloud – we store data in the Datto cloud as long as you maintain Datto service,” Mosovich said.

Datto is also emphasizing the SIRIS 3’s capacity to be far more than just a physical backup appliance.

“It’s not just the appliances,” Mosovich said. “They are larger and improved, but we want to emphasize they are more than just an appliance. There is a virtual option, with SIRIS Virtual, so both physical and virtual systems can be handled. With SiRIS Imaged, which used to be known as Genesis, we have a conversion tool that can turn non-BDR devices and other servers into a SIRIS BDR. These aren’t new components, but we are emphasizing them more strongly to ensure customers are aware of them.”

SIRIS_X1_3_Quarter

The Datto SIRIS 3 X1

Datto is heralding the SIRIS 3 X1 as the first available all-flash BDR device.

“There is a lot of buzz about this,” Mosovich said. “It has all the same functionality as the SIRIS 3, but just happens to be all-flash.”

The SIRIS 3 X1 can perform local virtualization directly on the appliance, and provides improved performance because of its enhanced NAS and iSCSI. It also has a 1 TB solid state drive, and 16 gigabytes of RAM. For now it is limited to the 1 TB model because of the price-performance curve in all-flash.

“We will be moving forward to more all-flash when the ROI is there,” Mosovich said. “We are there now with the 1 TB drive device. We will do more when it becomes the best mix of price and performance for the customers.”

Mosovich also reported that Datto is seeing very positive feedback on Datto Drive, its SMB Sync and Share offering it unveiled at the beginning of May, with the most eye-catching part being a free year for the first million subscribers.

“We have had a strong response, and not just for the free ones,” she said. “We have had signups for paid subscriptions, so we are seeing revenue from it. The purpose is to drive leads to our MSP community.” They have had between 8000 and 10,000 signups, from 110 different countries.

Both of the newly announced products are available now.