Last month PHD Virtual released version 5.3 of their Backup and Replication and PHD Virtual has really stepped up their game with this new release.

There are a handful of new features and improvements but the biggest improvement is the enhanced scalability and performance.

The performance for virtual machine backup and restore operations has improved significantly because of  a new optimized job processing engine and twice the number of data streams per Virtual Backup Appliance (VBA) and the ability to deploy multiple VBA’s. The Enterprise version even has the ability to enable 8 parallel data streams per VBA.

Other new features and improvements are:

  • Faster back-up and restore;
  • Offsite replication of virtual machines for disaster recovery;
  • Replicate without additional snapshots or system impact;

  • Verify replicated virtual machines with test mode;
  • Restore multiple virtual machines in a single job;
  • Export back-ups to standard compressed OVF files;
  • Optimized support for tape back-up solutions;
  • Support for VMware ESX/ESXi and Citrix XenServer;
  • New job processing engine with I/O optimizations and up to 8 concurrent data streams;
  • Virtual machine replication
  • Export of virtual machines from back-up Storage to standard OVF format.

The most impressive new feature is the ability to convert backed-up and deduplicated data into an OVF format which can then be transferred to tape. This feature is called PHD Virtual Open Export. Open Export converts backups to compressed OVF files and stores those files on temporary storage or removable media.

As an added option, your tape backup software can copy the OVF files to tape storage. Virtual machines can then be directly recovered from your tape backups, giving you another option in the event of a disaster.

Got you interested? You can download a free trial of PHD Virtual Backup and Replication 5.3.

Want to see more? Check out the What’s new in PHD Virtual Backup & Replication 5.3 video below.