Quest goes software-only with QoreStor. Next stop, the cloud

Quest Software has reinvented its backup appliance line as a software-defined backup target product, QoreStor. Customers can also use the data deduplication engine component of QoreStor to provide that functionality in other backup products.

The company also plans functionality that will allow QoreStor instances that run as backup targets in the cloud to use cloud providers’ native storage.

The QoreStor product can be deployed on customer hardware, as a virtual machine (VM) or a virtual instance in the cloud. It can be deployed as a backup target and also allows for replication between sites, between customer sites and the cloud, and across more than two sites.

A key component – which can be used with other suppliers’ backup products – is source data deduplication that can carry out data reduction before it is transmitted across the network to the backup target.

A feature in QoreStor claimed as unique by Quest is the ability to deduplicate network file system (NFS) and common internet file system (CIFS) file access storage data streams at source.

“Some competitors have data deduplication, some don’t,” said Adrian Moir, senior consultant of product management with Quest. “There are certainly products out there without full deduplication, such as Veeam. Veeam doesn’t deduplicate full datasets, but we can enhance it, for example, by bringing Global deduplication of datasets at targets and with source-side dedupe.”

QoreStor can also be used with native application data protection, such as with SQL Server and Oracle RMAN, to add data deduplication.

Quest’s QoreStor is one of an emerging class of software-defined products with which customers can build backup target hardware. Others include Hedvig, plus Cohesity and Rubrik that have VM editions of their products.

Moir said the move for Quest from its DR series to the software-defined QoreStor has been driven by customer demand for more flexibility.

“With an appliance, it was difficult if you went into a customer that was an HP house and didn’t want Dell hardware. Then there’s flexibility. People want to use different storage pieces, especially in the cloud,” he said.

Moir said this would be the next move for QoreStor. Currently, QoreStor instances that run in the cloud only use storage attached to the cloud VM. The next step – to be announced later this year – will allow customers to provision storage to cloud providers’ native storage, such as Amazon Web Services’ block, file or object storage.

Customers can trial QoreStor with a downloadable community edition with 1TB (terabyte) of storage that’s free forever.