Zetta Data Protect Review

As often as computer consultants, dealers, vendors, and reviewers talk about backup, companies still need more backup help. Effective backup and restore processes take work, and companies need better tools. Zetta Data Protect wants to provide that help, especially to dealers and MSPs. The company's product, with Web portals supporting multiple customers inside a single dashboard, makes it easier for backup providers to support their clients.

Install and Configuration

Zetta offers a 15-day trial that makes it easy to test without commitment, requiring only typical information like name, email address, password, security question, and a captcha. If you're signing up for real, you can choose anywhere from a 10GB "footprint plan" billed according to space used or up to 10TB or more with a custom plan.

Just about any server and client can be supported by Zetta. Client software is downloaded from within the Partner Portal. Linux fans should rejoice at the selection, especially if they use some version of Ubuntu, CentoOS, Red Hat, Debian, or SUSE; or recent MAC servers or Windows Server from 2003 onward; and Windows PCs from XP through Vista (really), Win7, and Win8, both 32 and 64-bit versions. Hard to believe clients will have machines Zetta can't cover.

Backup jobs are called tasks in Zetta-world, which is not as odd as the fact that the company calls the client software loaded on machines "ZettaMirror." To me, ZettaMirror would imply replicating data from the company's Santa Clara, Calif., data center to its Secaucus, N.J., data center. Predefined tasks cover a wide range, including Files, SQL, System State, NetApp, Pre Script, Post Script, Exchange, and Hyper-V.

Users at client companies can be authenticated for certain jobs, such as Storage and Recover. If you assign a local user as a Storage User, he or she can view basic storage information, change User ID, password, and security questions. If you have a Recover-level user, the person can only recover data from the systems assigned to him or her. Resellers and MSPs will, of course, be the admin users in almost all cases, although local users can be given admin rights.