Time for a New BDR Appliance? Axcient’s Got Your Back
Sourcing reliable backup and disaster recovery (BDR) appliances for long-term use can be daunting for MSPs. The constant evolution of technology, supply chain disruptions, and rising quality equipment costs make it challenging to ensure dependable business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR).
That’s where Axcient steps in, offering flexible Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies designed to ease BDR appliance headaches and reinforce profitability by lowering total cost of ownership (TCO). Whether you’re dealing with outdated appliances or want more control over your infrastructure, Axcient’s approach empowers MSPs to create resilient BCDR environments without struggling to procure new hardware. Keep reading to see how Axcient’s BDR appliances reduce ticket counts, enable remote management, and significantly reduce overhead for higher margins.
“Based on analysis from Q1 2023 to Q2 2024, on average, MSPs using a turn-key Axcient BDR appliance saw a 300% reduction in BDR appliance-related support tickets. Accounts using strictly Axcient BDR appliances experienced fewer support tickets than accounts with repurposed BYOD or a combination of different appliances.”
Table of Contents
Beware of Legacy, Out-of-Warranty, and Old BDR Appliances
Proactively replacing legacy, out-of-warranty, and old BDR appliances is crucial for MSPs to maintain reliable service and avoid costly disruptions. Aging hardware is more prone to failures, leading to data loss, extended downtime, and diminished client trust – damaging factors for MSPs that rely on delivering consistent, dependable services.
Outdated appliances often lack the latest security features, making them vulnerable to cyber threats. Newer models typically offer enhanced performance, faster recovery times, and better integration with modern software. By upgrading proactively, MSPs can ensure optimal client protection, minimize operational risks, and improve overall service quality.
Opting for Turn-Key BDR Appliances with Support
Axcient refers to our BDR appliances as “turn-key” because they offer a fully integrated, ready-to-use solution that MSPs can deploy quickly without requiring complex setup or additional configuration. A turn-key appliance is designed to be easy to install and operate, streamlining BDR processes for uninterrupted business continuity.
With pre-configured software, optimized hardware, and seamless integration with cloud services, Axcient’s BDR appliances allow MSPs to get up and running immediately. This minimizes the time spent on installation and reduces the need for extensive and often expensive technical expertise. Leveraging this simple deployment process enables MSPs to focus on efficiently delivering reliable backup and recovery services to their clients.
BDR Appliance Options: Turn-Key Buy or Lease vs. BYOD
In addition to done-for-you turn-key BDR appliances, Axcient offers the option of bringing your own device with our BYOD approach. While BYOD policies can relieve upfront costs and allow MSPs to repurpose existing devices, the devices may still be unsupported. For the following reasons, MSPs may buy or lease an Axcient-supported BDR appliance rather than bringing their own.
- Significantly fewer support tickets: Based on analysis from Q1 2023 to Q2 2024, on average, MSPs using a turn-key Axcient BDR appliance saw a 300% reduction in BDR appliance-related support tickets. Accounts using strictly Axcient BDR appliances experienced fewer support tickets than accounts with repurposed BYOD or a combination of different appliances. As MSPs can devote more time to value-added tasks and less time on support, margins grow, profitability increases, and total costs lower.
- Simplified deployment: Axcient appliances are pre-configured and fully integrated, allowing quick and hassle-free setup. This reduces the time and technical complexity needed to get BCDR systems operational compared to BYOD setups, which may require manual configuration, troubleshooting, and compatibility checks.
- Optimized performance: Our BDR appliances are purpose-built for BCDR, offering specifically optimized hardware to work seamlessly with Axcient’s software. This ensures peak performance, faster recovery times, and reliable backup processes, whereas BYOD devices may not be as finely tuned or may vary in quality, affecting overall system efficiency.
- End-to-end support and guidance: Get comprehensive support from a single vendor, including complete hardware and software support with Axcient, including advanced parts replacement. MSPs don’t have to worry about compatibility issues or juggling multiple vendors for troubleshooting, which slows productivity and increases costs. In contrast, BYOD systems may involve working with numerous vendors, which can complicate support and delay recovery times.
- Extended warranty options: Axcient BDR appliances include a hassle-free 36-month warranty covering both hardware and software. MSPs can extend this warranty up to 60 months during the original coverage period, ensuring continuous support without worrying about expired warranties or service gaps—an issue often encountered with BYOD setups, where components may have varying warranty periods.
- Seamless upgradeability: Specifically designed with scalable storage and memory options, the Axcient Mini and Rack models have upgradable storage, and Rack models have upgradable memory. These BDR appliances come with pre-configured hardware, eliminating compatibility issues and ensuring a smooth and efficient upgrade process. In a BYOD environment, upgrades might require sourcing compatible parts, testing, and troubleshooting, which can introduce delays and complications.
- Remote appliance management: Axcient BDR appliances come with IPMI functionality pre-integrated, enabling MSPs to remotely manage, monitor, and troubleshoot the device without physical access. This streamlined management process reduces downtime and improves business continuity. With BYOD, implementing and maintaining IPMI may require more effort, with varying levels of compatibility and performance.
Axcient’s Turn-Key BDR Appliances
Axcient provides a variety of high-performance BDR hardware devices that can be leased or purchased and delivered to you or your clients. Each turn-key BDR appliance is labeled with storage capacities based on recommended usage.
For instance, the Eco-1500 offers 1.5 TB of usable space. While the raw capacity might be as high as 2TB, after accounting for the ZFS file system and applying an 85% recommended usage threshold, the available storage is 1.5 TB. This straightforward labeling makes selecting the right BDR size manageable by referencing the model’s name or usable capacity. The following options are available:
The x360Recover Pico
The x360Recover Pico is Axcient’s most compact and affordable BDR solution, built on the ASUS Dual M.2 NUC platform. It features a dedicated OS disk and a 1.5TB storage disk, optimized for protecting 1-3 systems. This appliance is designed for small businesses requiring virtualization capabilities for a single system and includes a standard 3-year warranty for peace of mind.
- Based on: ASUS Dual M.2 NUC
- 2TB total storage capacity
- 1.5 TB of usable storage
- CPU: Hyperthreaded 6 core processor
- OS SSD: Kingston M.2 256GB SSD
- RAM: 16 GB
- Storage Drive: Kingston 2TB NVMe M.2 2280
The x360Recover Eco
The Eco series features advanced Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) functionality. This allows MSPs to remotely control and monitor servers from a central location, significantly reducing time and operational costs. Each Eco model has an SSD dedicated to the operating system, while the storage drives are configured in a mirrored RAID 1 setup for added data protection. This compact server is available in three configurations:
- Eco-1500: 1.5 TB of usable storage and 16 GB of RAM
- Eco-3000: 3 TB of usable storage and 16 GB of RAM
- Eco-6000: 6 TB of usable storage and 16 GB of RAM
The x360Recover Mini
The x360Recover Mini BDR appliance offers Axcient’s most popular storage capacities and price points in a compact mini-tower design. Powered by a Xeon E-2126G processor with 32 GB of RAM (or 64 GB of RAM for the Mini-6000 model), each unit comes with a 3-year warranty, with the option to extend to 4 or 5 years at any time during the initial warranty period. Every Mini model includes an SSD dedicated to the operating system and features either a mirrored RAID 1 configuration with two storage drives or a RAID 5 setup for models equipped with SSDs. The Mini combines performance, flexibility, and easy serviceability to meet the needs of MSPs looking for dependable BDR solutions. Additional features include:
- Hot-swap drive bays for effortless storage drive replacement.
- IPMI for remote management and access.
- Depending on the original configuration, hybrid models can be field-upgraded to 3, 6, or 12 TB of usable storage.
- Non-SSD models utilize Enterprise HDDs for storage.
Rack Gen
The Axcient x360Recover Rack Gen is a second-generation BDR appliance housed in a standard 2U 19″ server rack chassis featuring eight 3.5″ hot-swappable drive bays. By default, four bays are populated with 2 TB, 4 TB, 8 TB, or 12 TB hard drives, and the remaining four bays can be filled with matching drives to double the storage capacity. Non-SSD Rack models are equipped with enterprise-grade HDDs for reliable performance. This turn-key appliance comes pre-configured with x360Recover backup software and can be customized for specific client needs when ordering, making it ideal for direct drop-shipping to end users.
Learn More About Your BDR Appliance Choices: Choosing an Axcient Appliance
BDR Appliance Options: HDD vs. SSD
Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and Solid-State Drives (SSDs) are two primary storage options for MSPs when building and managing BCDR. HDDs store data on spinning magnet disks or platters and use a mechanical arm to read and write information. SSDs store data on flash memory chips with no moving parts, allowing faster read/write speeds.
Since HDDs rely on mechanical parts, data access and transfer rates are slower than SSDs. SSDs significantly reduce backup and recovery times due to faster data access speeds, making them ideal for high-performing environments. SSDs also offer excellent reliability with more durability and are less prone to physical failure while using less power than HDDs. Particularly useful when running parallel backup jobs during virtualization, Axcient employs SSDs in our BDR appliances to help MSPs recover completely and quickly.
While SSDs can be slightly more expensive than HDDs, the savings are returned to MSPs through increased productivity. For example, if an MSP experiences just one cyber event per year, the 30 minutes saved during recovery due to SSDs cover the increased cost of the elevated storage option. Downtime costs for SMBs average $135-$300 per hour per employee, so negating these additional costs can save MSPS $2-4k in lost productivity.
The table below illustrates the significantly faster input/output operations per second (IOPS) achieved using SSDs compared to conventional hard drives, which typically average 50-100 IOP:
| x360Recover BDR Mini | 1500 SSD (Micron 5400 PRO 960GB 2.5in) | 3000 SSD (Micron 5400 PRO 1.92TB 2.5in) | 6000 SSD (Micron 5400 PRO 3.84TB 2.5in) |
| Random Read (4KB transfer) | 95,000 IOPS | 95,000 IOPS | 95,000 IOPS |
| Random Write (4KB transfer) | 33,000 IOPS | 33,000 IOPS | 30,000 IOPS |
| Random 70/30 RW (4KB transfer) | 58,000 IOPS | 58,000 IOPS | 51,000 IOPS |
Next Steps for Your Next BDR Appliance
To learn more about appliance options and specifications, visit the x360Recover Essential User Guide: Choose an Axcient appliance. Contact your partner account manager to discuss lease and buy options and to get started with your new BDR appliance. Not an Axcient partner? Schedule a free demo, start your 14-day trial, or get a BCDR quote now.
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