Barracuda Launches European Backup Offering

Barracuda Networks has announced the European launch of a cloud-based backup service, which it is aiming at all sized businesses that are looking to securely backup their data off site.

It has been a busy time for the company. Barracuda has also announced the acquisition of a start-up called Purewire, in an effort to expand its software-as-a-service credentials. Purewire was launched in 2008 and had sought to make an impact by offering web security in the cloud.

The Barracuda Backup Service is being touted as a secure cloud-based backup service hosted at two data centres in Europe. It makes use of the Barracuda Backup Server, which offers customers sufficient storage for a complete copy of their current and historical data. System admins can also quickly restore data directly from the server.

The service can also handle and backup all data from most operating systems, and comes bundled with backup software so that it can natively provide application backups of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server and Windows System State.

“The Barracuda Backup Service offers Europe’s SMBs and SMEs access to enterprise-class data protection and disaster recovery, at a fraction of the traditional cost,” said Michael Hughes, Barracuda Networks VP of channels, EMEA. “It is simple to use and occupying up to 1/50th of the normal backup storage footprint, customers are welcoming the Barracuda Backup Service for its convenience as much as for its exceptional value.”

With the Barracuda Backup Service, the customer has the ability to set automatic backups thereby eliminating many risks associated with manual backup techniques. Security is also catered for, as the service offers multiple layers of encryption, including AES 256-bit, in order to protect the integrity of data transferred and stored offsite.

There is also a data deduplication option that helps reduce the storage and transfer requirements for backups. It does this by analysing each file at the bit level and then only copying, transferring and archiving new bit sequences.

Pricing for the Barracuda Backup Service includes a one-time hardware fee for the Barracuda Backup Server and a monthly subscription to the Barracuda Backup Service plans.

Actual costs for the Barracuda Backup Server starts at £899 (depending on model), while the Barracuda Backup Service plans start at £59 for 100GB of storage per month (although it apparently varies according to how much storage is required).