We are currently focusing on developing efficient hyperconverged infrastructure solutions with built-in Disaster Recovery capabilities which allow you to restart the entire IT infrastructure in just 15 minutes. Our flavour of hyperconverged solutions is designed to perfectly fit the needs of SMBs, ROBOs and enterprises with small/ medium datacenters.

We take this mission very seriously. Attention to detail and ease of use is invested into every step of the process: design, development and improvement of our products.

This includes the development of our OS which runs all our products. Syneto OS has reached version 3.2. With each new OS version, we try to include new features that make life (and IT infrastructure management) a bit easier for our users. What does this mean exactly?

In a nutshell, with Syneto OS 3.2, the IT administrator can now:

• Reduce the RPO for disaster recovery from 60 minutes to 1 minute
• Reduce the RTO to less than 15 minutes

Disaster Recovery RPO: 60 seconds

First let’s clarify what RPO is: the amount of time between data protection events (backups); it reflects the amount of data that could be potentially lost during a disaster recovery. Improving the RPO translates to less potential data loss in case a disaster occurs. We have managed to reduce that interval to 1 minute.

How is that possible?

1. Better RPO through more frequent backups

On a Syneto product, Disaster Recovery is possible through scheduled backups and replication. The backups (snapshots) are replicated onto the dedicated DR unit. Every Syneto product like the HYPERSeries 3000 contains a dedicated DR unit. From the DR unit, backups can be restored instantly in case of a downtime incident. That is why faster and more frequent backups mean faster Disaster Recovery procedures.

With previous Syneto OS versions, the user could recover data as old as one hour prior to the downtime event. Now users can schedule backups as frequent as one every 1 minute. This seriously reduces the recovery time in case of a disaster.

If previous versions allowed for hourly and daily backups, it is now possible to schedule them:

• Every X minutes
• Weekly, on a certain week day

2. Faster transfer, faster backups

For Disaster Recovery purposes, it is important that the transfer of data to the DR unit happens as soon as possible. To help our users minimise transfer times, in our new OS version we have added the possibility of selecting non-encrypted backup transfer to the DR unit. The user can now select this option if their infrastructure is located on premises and he does not need an extra level of security. Data will then be transferred faster which helps ensure a very low RPO.

3. A new design for faster settings

We know that with some older versions of Syneto OS, defining backup schedules for a large number of folders and virtual disks was a rather time-consuming task. Backup scheduling had to be done for every folder. The user had to repeat the steps several times during the process. Backing up a VM would have had to be done in a new workflow, also consisting of several steps.

We have now eliminated many of the repetitive steps that the user previously had to take. We have also added the option to set up VM backup configurations in the same integrated workflow. This is all possible thanks to a complete interface redesign, which is:

• more intuitive
• more user-friendly
• less time-consuming

Disaster Recovery with improved RTO

RTO roughly translates into the time needed to recover in case of a downtime incident. In case of a disaster, the most time-consuming step of the recovery process is restoring virtual machines. Restoring a VM usually involves a long set of steps. We realise that the integrity of VMs is important for any business and we have worked on embracing a more VM-centric approach.

Restoring a Virtual Machine is now easier than ever: you can restore a VM automatically, directly from a Syneto backup. The process is straightforward and just 1 click away.

Moreover, with just a few clicks on the Syneto OS 3.2 web UI, you can now create a copy of a virtual machine, exactly as it was in a certain backup you are interested in. This is particularly useful if you are trying to recover information that was accidentally deleted or infected by a CryptoLocker virus: files, e-mails, conversations etc.

Bonus feature: don’t sacrifice performance during integrity checks

With Syneto, data is automatically healed whenever it is read from the disk, to make sure it is the same data that was written. Sometimes however, there is some data that hasn’t been read for a long time and may contain inconsistencies. If you want to regularly check that data which hasn’t been used for a long time, you can use the “integrity check” feature.

The “integrity check” operation may however create an overhead of activity. You can now change the impact that this has, by limiting the resources for the process. You can choose an approach that best fits your needs.

You can now select the balance that is best for your operations. For example, you can choose the “fast” integrity check if you have scheduled it during a time when you don’t have other important operations running or you can choose the “slow” one, which will take longer, but will not have great impact on data access.

We hope you enjoy these new features and we are looking forward to bringing you even more improvements in the near future! If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!