Dell PowerProtect Data Manager –

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Dell PowerProtect Data Manager

Overview
Dell PowerProtect Data Manager (Data Manager) is a data
protection solution that was introduced into the Dell Highlights
portfolio in July 2019.
▪ Centralized data
Data Manager provides key data protection features protection.
including backup, administrator-controlled and self- ▪ Governance over and
service restores, replication, and data deduplication and visibility into adherence to
compression. It leverages a software-as-a-service
(SaaS)-based interface (Dell Data Protection Central) for
service levels.
monitoring and reporting, as well as application of ▪ Backup to and in the
retention locks. cloud, cloud disaster
recovery, long-term
Data Manager software can protect a variety of retention in the cloud.
applications, and physical, virtualized, and container-
based infrastructures, both on-premises and in the cloud.
▪ Self-service backups and
It can use Dell PowerProtect DP or PowerProtect DD restores via native
appliances as a target. In addition to being able to be interfaces.
deployed in the AWS, Microsoft Azure and GCP clouds, ▪ Built in compression,
Data Manager can back data up, recover data, and tier deduplication (via Dell DD
data to AWS, Microsoft Azure and GCP clouds for archiving Boost) and replication.
and long-term retention.
▪ SaaS interface for
PowerProtect Data Manager can be purchased monitoring and reporting.
standalone, packaged within the Dell Data Protection ▪ Transparent Snapshot
Suite, or as a preintegrated appliance. It can also be Data Mover for stun-free
deployed in AWS, Microsoft Azure and GCP, and procured VM backups
through these providers’ respective marketplaces.
▪ Cloud tiering for long-
term storage
Usage
▪ Dell PowerProtect Cyber
PowerProtect Data Manager provides data protection, Recovery to accelerate
reuse and governance for physical, virtual and cloud recovery from cyber
environments. Data Manager can use Dell PowerProtect incidents
DP or PowerProtect DD appliances as well as cloud
storage services as a target. It utilizes a SaaS interface
for monitoring and reporting, and it shares many of the

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same software features with Dell PowerProtect DD appliances including DD Boost, Retention
Lock, Cloud Tier, replication, and data reduction.

▪ Characteristics
- Performance
▪ Depends on deployment (hardware, VM environment, cloud infrastructure,
etc.)
- Availability – Software includes automated failover and failback capabilities.
▪ Copy protected VMs to the public cloud for the orchestration and
automation of disaster recovery (DR) testing, DR failover and failback
▪ Supports Dell Cloud Disaster Recovery over private networks
- Replication
▪ Entitlement to Dell RecoverPoint for VMs
▪ PowerProtect DD Managed File Replication
▪ Use Cases/Implementations
- Backup and operational recovery
▪ Multi hybrid-cloud support (protected sources and protection targets)
▪ Kubernetes container environments
- Disaster recovery (DR)
▪ In the cloud
▪ For NAS systems
▪ Resting, documentation, automation
▪ Live VM recovery (Instant Access / Instant Restore, per Dell)
▪ From cyber attacks
- Monitoring and analytics
- Data governance
- Data Re-Use
▪ Supported Sources
- AWS, Azure and GCP infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)-native sources, including
GovCloud
- AKS and EKS
- Azure VMware Solution
- Databases (Cassandra, Microsoft Exchange and SQL, MongoDB, MySQL, Oracle,
PostgreSQL, SAP HANA)
▪ Active Directory granular level recovery
▪ Centralized protection operations for SAP HANA and Exchange
▪ Multi-stream backups for Oracle RAC

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- VMware environments (on-premises, Google Cloud VMware Engine, VMware

Cloud on AWS)
▪ Open source hypervisors can be backed up to Dell PowerProtect DD
through Dell vProtect, which is OEM’d from Storware
- Linux and Windows filesystems
▪ Parallel File System backups supported for Windows systems
- Windows NTFS
- Parallel File System backups supported for Windows systems
- NAS systems
▪ Dell PowerStore, PowerScale, and Unity (automatic detection)
▪ Other NFS and CIFS NAS systems (manually added)
- AIX filesystems
- Kubernetes container environments
▪ Application-consistent protection for Cassandra, MongoDB, MySQL and
PostgreSQL
▪ Kubernetes running on AWS EC2
▪ Red Hat OpenShift running in VMware vSphere
▪ Red Hat OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP)
▪ VMware CSI driver
▪ VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid clusters
▪ Deployment and Administration
- Stand-alone software provided as a VMware Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) that
can run on standard hardware; also available through and deployable in the AWS,
Azure and Google Cloud Marketplaces, in combination with the PowerProtect DD
Virtual Edition
- Pre-integrated Dell PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance.
- Utilizes a SaaS interface for monitoring and reporting
▪ Supports VMware’s storage policy-based management to apply data
protection policies to VMs
▪ Dell PowerProtect Cloud Snapshot Manager, for snapshot management
across multiple clouds (AWS, Microsoft Azure and VMware Cloud on AWS)
for backup and disaster recovery
- RESTful API support
- Automated discovery and (via service level-driven policies) protection of
databases, virtual machines, file systems and Kubernetes containers.
- File-level indexing for global and granular search and recovery
- Self-service backup and restore operations.

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- Performance – Backup performance with client-side deduplication is highly

variable based on the workload type, processor capabilities, and the network.
Each implementation will need to do an evaluation.
- Replication for business continuity (BC)/disaster recovery (DR) – Asynchronous
remote replication over IP networks is a built-in feature of the Avamar software.
- Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) with PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition provides
scalable backup and recovery for in-cloud workloads. Cloud support includes
VMware Cloud on AWS, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure.
- Avamar with Cloud Disaster Recovery provides simple DR to AWS and Azure,
offering fully orchestrated DR to the cloud as well as failback to on-premises.
▪ Applications
- Dell Avamar is targeted at both local and remote backups. It is integrated with
major applications to allow for consistent backups such as Microsoft SharePoint,
Exchange, SQL, Domino, Oracle, VMware, and SAP.
▪ System environments
- Operating systems supported includes multiple variations of Linux, versions of
Microsoft Windows, and UNIX systems AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris as well as RHEL,
SLES, OES, and MacOS.
▪ Deployment and Administration
- Supports three forms of deployment: A physical appliance, a virtual appliance and
software. Both the software and virtual edition integrate with Dell PowerProtect DD
systems.
- Administration is through a GUI accessed either through the web or from an
application loaded on a server. Dell Data Protection Central (DPC) is a no-
additional-charge utility that offers centralized monitoring, alert management,
reporting and search with integrated recovery. With DPC, customers have visibility
across Avamar, NetWorker, PowerProtect Data Manager and Dell Integrated Data
Protection Appliances from a single pane of glass.

Key Capabilities

Architecture and Deployment

Data Manager is available as a software subscription (stand-alone and as a component of the
Dell Data Protection Suite Manager). It can be deployed on industry-standard hardware or it can
be procured as SaaS through the AWS, Microsoft Azure and GCP Marketplaces. In addition,
Data Manager is available in an integrated appliance form factor, the Dell PowerProtect Data
Manager Appliance.

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Administration and Management

Data Manager leverages a microservices architecture for simplified scalability and upgrades as
well as a regular feature update cadence that allows for updated and new features to become
accessible more quickly. It enables its data management capabilities through a SaaS-based
interface, Dell Data Protection Central, that gives users the ability for monitoring, reporting, and
troubleshooting across the distributed system. The SaaS management portal aims to be easy to
use and allow users to manage their data from anywhere, and sources are automatically
discovered and, via a policy engine, backed up. Users can complete self-service backup and
data restore operations. They also have instant access to data for data reuse. It is worth noting
that, while the platform does offer these data management features, it is not currently a full-
feature data management system that is ready to completely replace an organization’s current
data management solutions.

Dell Storage Direct is built in to the Dell Data Protection Central interface. The capability enables
fast recovery and instant access to protected data for simplified granular recovery, while
removing the need for excess backup infrastructure, reducing overall cost and complexity.
Storage Direct supports backing up PowerMax (and previous generation VMAX) and
PowerStore primary storage systems to Dell Data Domain and PowerProtect DD appliances. It is
covered in more detail in The Futurum Group’s Dell PowerProtect DD Product Analysis.

Dell PowerProtect Cloud Snapshot Manager is entitled with Data Maanger, and customers are
able to launch it from Dell Data Protection Central. PowerProtect Cloud Snapshot Manager is a
SaaS solution designed to simplify protection of workloads across multiple cloud environments.
Specifically, it automates discovery, management and orchestration AWS and Microsoft Azure
native snapshots. It also facilitates recoveries from those snapshots.

Data Cataloging, Search and Analytics

A configurable search engine is automatically deployed during the Data Manager software
installation, allowing specific VM file copies to be located and restored by backup administrators.

Backup Processes
The Data Manager software can protect a variety of databases, Kubernetes container
environments, VMware applications on-premises and in the cloud, as well as Windows NTFS and
some Linux filesystems. Dell continues enhancing core workload support, for example qualifying
the software for vSphere 7 support and offering file-level recovery via a plug in. It also OEMs
Storware’s vProtect to allow for open source hypervisor environments to be recovered to Dell
PowerProtect DD appliances (formerly Data Domain). Additionally, Dell is building out cloud and
container support. AWS-, Azure- and GCP-native resources are supported. Backup in the cloud
backup to the cloud, and long-term retention and DR to the cloud (e.g., copy data replication and
failover/failback between on-premises PowerProtect DD arrays and AWS, Azure, and VMware

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Cloud on AWS public cloud resources), are all supported. Also notable on the cloud front is ongoing
enhancements to support for containers, including application-consistent backups of MongoDB
and MySQL databases in container environments, and support for OpenShift on VMware,
VMware Tanzu, and Kubernetes clusters running on AWS EC2.

The Transparent Snapshot Data Mover (TSDM) feature addresses latency and IOPS issues
inherent in using VMware’s vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) to back up mission-critical
applications running on a large-scale implementation of virtual machines. To allow for image-level
backups without pausing or otherwise disrupting (“stunning”) the VM, TSDM uses a VM Direct
Engine to allow Data Manager to communicate directly with VMware’s APIs, without an external
proxy. From there, Data Manager can serve as an orchestrator, providing scheduling capabilities,
creating and monitoring vCenter tasks including snapshot orchestration, and managing VM traffic
as well as placement of backup and recovery jobs on ESXi hosts. As of July 2023, the TSDM
capability was expanded to include support for application-consistent protection of Microsoft
SQL databases.

Data owners can execute backups and restores on an on demand, self-service basis with
centralized oversight and governance.

Recovery and Replication

PowerProtect Data Manager’s replication abilities are ported from PowerProtect DD Replicator.
The replicator does asynchronous replication to another PowerProtect appliance. The replication
is policy-based with encryption of data during the replication. The compressed, deduplicated
data is replicated over a wide area network (WAN) during the backup process. The replication
supports full system mirroring, one-to-many replication operations, cascaded, many-to-one, and
bi-directional. The replication can be cross-site where any redundant segment previously
transferred by any remote site is not replicated again, reducing the bandwidth requirements for
replication. Quick recovery capability replicates corresponding metadata with backup copies to
a secondary, offsite PowerProtect Data Manager server. This enables restoration to occur from
the replicated copies, without first recovering any of the primary PowerProtect Data Manager
servers.

Data Efficiency
Data Manager software’s data reduction features are ported from PowerProtect DD.
Deduplication and compression are enabled by default, and are not user-selectable. Notably, it
supports DD Boost, a feature to distribute deduplication to the backup server or application clients
to utilize processing resources on those systems to increase the aggregate bandwidth of the
backup system by avoiding sending duplicate data to the appliance.

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Cloud Tier is an option that allows data to be moved a cloud tier, which may be hosted on-
premises or off-site using an approved object / content repository. Data can be migrated to the
cloud tier for extended retention. Products supported for use as a cloud tier includes:

• AWS
• Google Cloud Platform
• Microsoft Azure
• IBM Cloud Object Storage
• RedHat Ceph

Encryption and Immutability

File locking for archive usage is supported with the Retention Lock feature. The time-based file
locking will meet many governance and compliance requirements. As part of the Retention Lock
feature, files are prevented from deletion until the retention period is expired and may not be
altered (write once read many, or WORM, mode) at all. Data shredding is supported to perform
digital overwrites on a per-file basis. The overwrite meets NIST requirements on the
deduplicated data without uncompressing or rehydrating so transient versions do not exist. Data
encrypted at rest and in flight.

Access Control
Includes role-based access control (RBAC) for security.

Data Vaulting
Support for Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery allows customers to replicate Data Manager
backups from the primary or protection appliance into an isolated Cyber Recovery vault. Data
copies are immutable, and they are interrogated for integrity and corruption with Dell
Technologies’ CyberSense Analytics capability. Recovery is automated for faster remediation. In
addition to being offered as a PowerProtect DD-based solution managed by the customer,
PowerProtect Cyber Recovery is available as a managed service through Dell APEX, and as a
hosted public cloud service in AWS, Azure and GCP.

Significant Announcements
• 2023
o July:
▪ PowerProtect Data Manager Software
• Added ability to directly back up volume and volume group
snapshots to PowerProtect appliances from PowerStore arrays using
the Data Manager UI, for centralized and orchestrated protection for
multiple PowerStore clusters.

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•Added ability to create customer-tailored recovery orchestration

plans for VMware VMs for faster time-to-recover.
• Enhanced Transparent Snapshots capability to address application-
aware protection of Microsoft SQL environments, without
interrupting production performance.
▪ PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance
• Enhanced cyber-resiliency capabilities
o Added ability to vault data to a PowerProtect Cyber Recovery
Vault
o Added retention lock compliance and Microsoft MFA
• Added hybrid multi-cloud data replication for disaster recovery and
data mobility; supported targets include:
o PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition
o APEX Protection Storage for Public Cloud for AWS, Azure,
Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud.
• 2024
o January:
▪ Active Directory granular level recovery
▪ Centralized protection operations for SAP HANA and Exchange
▪ Multi-stream backups for Oracle RAC

Futurum Group EvaluScale – Data Protection Software

The Futurum Group product review methodology “EvaluScale” assesses each product within a
specific technology area. The evaluation of each product is based on its capabilities, with
capabilities for each technology segment grouped into distinct categories. For the Data
Protection Software EvaluScale products are evaluated based on the following 4 criteria
categories:

• Protection Environment
• Advanced Capabilities
• Cyber Resiliency
• Ability to Execute

The full Data Protection EvaluScale can be found here.

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The Futurum Group Opinion and Outlook for Dell

PowerProtect Data Manager
Dell is an enterprise vendor with a long and reputable history (e.g., experience with cloud DR via
Avamar, proven capabilities around deduplication and replication via Data Domain). Dell is
building from this history, and it is focusing its data protection-related portfolio development and
sales and marketing initiatives on Data Manager (e.g., “Path to Power” program to encourage
Avamar and NetWorker customers to adopt Data Manager). It is worth noting that Data
Manager sits as a component of a larger portfolio, meaning that there is likely to be some
crossover in capabilities with other Dell offerings including DataIQ.

Being on a quarterly release cadence is allowing for the offering to be quickly expanded to
support critical enterprise data sources, and to provide foundational data protection and
management functionalities required in today’s multi-cloud era (e.g., ransomware detection,
support for the range of cloud data protection use cases, expanding support for Kubernetes
environments and other important data sources).

PowerProtect Data Manager enhances Dell’s focus on data management, in line with industry
trends towards the convergence of data protection and data management. It also addresses
the trend of decentralizing backup activities via self-service operations. Its flexibility of
deployment options addresses a variety of needs, and licensing via Dell Data Protection Suite
eases the process of trialing and adopting Data Manager, because customers have access to
PowerProtect Data Manager as part of their licensing scheme.

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assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. The Futurum Group makes no expressed or implied warranties in this document
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