Colt launches Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery Services

Colt’s new backup service for VMware vCloud® provides VARs with flexible service options for their end-user customers who can now choose exactly what data they want to protect and backup, the level of resiliency, and in which European locations. Managed via an online portal for speed and ease, the new service gives Colt’s channel partners the option to create and operate a managed cloud backup service, or to pass self-management rights directly to their own customers. The service is available on a “pay-as-you-go” basis with no upfront costs.

Colt also announces the launch of a replication service. Managed through a portal, the service permits VARs to administer the location of their workloads in the event of a disaster. By building replication into the fabric of its vCloud estate, Colt has greatly simplified the creation of geo-resilient solutions. This will enable VARs to better meet the needs of customers with on-site VMware deployments who require cost-effective disaster recovery capabilities. Colt’s new service also allows resellers to offer their customers cloud-to-cloud resilience.

Keith Humphrey at EuroLAN commented: “With the launch of these new business continuity features, Colt has significantly enhanced its vCloud portfolio and taken another step towards industrialising the hybrid and public cloud. Solid backup and recovery is an essential component of most IT solutions, and customers increasingly expect a degree of DR capability in their infrastructure. We particularly like the fact that Colt has put the tools into a portal, and opened their infrastructure up to resellers, allowing them to create their own managed services.”

“Our new cloud backup and replication services build on our heritage as the first European partner offering VMware vCloud® Datacenter Services. Our services can be completely self-managed through our unique portal to meet the specific needs of our channel partners without our intervention,” said Gary Moore, Channel Director, Colt. “We have seen significant demand for these kinds of features, and we believe that automating the provision and management of them will accelerate uptake of a hybrid cloud service by VARs and their customers.”

Colt’s new vCloud service is based on Symantec’s backup software which has been designed to provide best-in-class data protection and backup. The replication capability will be powered by technology from Zerto Inc. Both will be demonstrated at VMworld® Europe 2013.

Ziv Kedem, CEO and co-founder of Zerto, commented, "We are proud that Colt chose to use Zerto Virtual Replication technology throughout its vCloud datacenter estate. We have been working closely with Colt to bring a multi-site and multi-tenant solution for replication and recovery to their cloud environment. We are confident that having enterprise-class recovery and workload migration technology will further accelerate reliance on cloud infrastructure.”