Microsoft-certified Consulting

Overview of System Center 2016 Data Protection Manager
System Center 2016 Data Protection Manager (SCDPM 2016) provides near-continuous backup and simplified restore capabilities for Microsoft environments. SCDPM 2016 offers small and mid-size businesses application-aware protection for critical workloads like Microsoft SQL, Exchange and SharePoint, backs up Windows and Linux virtual machines, and supports VMs running on Hyper-V and VMware. SCDPM 2016 can back up and restore files, folders and volumes and can replicate and recover data between different sites. For convenient offsite backup, SCDPM 2016 can use the Azure Backup service for short-term backup and the Azure Recovery Services vault for affordable long-term archival backup. New features in SCDPM include Windows Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 support, more efficient storage, higher performance, and enhanced security.

Current releases of Data Protection Manager feature support for Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, SQL Server 2019, Exchange 2019, and SharePoint 2019. Later versions offer more efficient storage, higher performance when using tiered storage, support for ReFS volumes, Azure Data Box support for offline backup, and advanced security.

Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants can assist businesses to design, deploy, manage, and repair a backup/recovery solution powered by System Center 2016 Data Protection Manager. Progent can help you migrate from an older version of Data Protection Manager or from a legacy backup solution, and Progent can tune your SCDPM 2016 environment for on premises, hosted, cloud-based or hybrid deployment models. Progent can also help you migrate to the latest versions of Data Protection Manager or to a different backup/restore platform. (See Progent's managed backup services.) Progent offers remote or onsite consulting expertise and can deliver occasional guidance to help you through technical bottlenecks or provide end-to-end project management services to help you complete your SCDPM 2016 initiative on schedule and on budget.

Progent's Data Protection Manager consultants can help you with any phase of deploying and managing SCDPM 2016. Services available from Progent include:

• Assess the suitability of SCDPM 2016 for your organization
• Define your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
• Determine your system requirements (one DPM server can protect 100 servers, 3,000 client computers, and 2,000 databases)
• Design or review your SCDPM deployment architecture
• Provide Windows Server 2016 consulting to set up hosts for SCDPM 2016 servers
• Provide SQL Server 2019 migration consulting or SQL Server 2017 upgrade expertise to carry out efficient migration to a modern version of SQL Server with enhanced performance, security, availability, and scale for critical data-driven applications
• Provide SQL Server 2016 consulting for setting up the SCDPM 2016 database plus SQL-driven workloads
• Provide firewall consulting for setting up firewalls for your DPM servers, protected machines, and remote SQL Server
• Prepare your physical and virtual infrastructure for on-premises or hosted datacenters
• Provide Microsoft Azure consulting to integrate SCDPM 2016 with cloud services
• Define and configure your storage architecture
• Provide Hyper-V consulting and VMware consulting for setting up hosts for Windows virtual machines
• Provide Exchange 2019 integration services, Exchange 2016 consulting, SharePoint consulting, and other expertise to protect your Microsoft workloads
• Identify all data sources to be protected by SCDPM 2016
• Define and implement compliant short-term and long-term backup and retention policies
• Define and implement security policies for your various workloads
• Set up monitoring and management automation
• Plan tape library rotation and management or move to disk-only backup
• Set up Protection Groups and Storage Pools
• Install SCDPM Protection Agents
• Provide Operations Manager 2016 consulting, Virtual Machine Manager 2016 consulting and other System Center 2016 expertise to support SCDPM 2016
• Configure self-service client backup and restore
• Define, test and tune backup and recovery workflows based on leading practices

• Modern Backup Storage (MBS): DPM's Modern Backup Storage (MBS) technology utilizes Windows Server 2016 Resilient File System (ReFS) Block Cloning for storing incremental backups, which can cut storage requirements from 30-40% and can accelerate backup speed by nearly 70% compared to previous releases of DPM. By using ReFS volumes and storing backups on VHDXs, Data Protection Manager 2016 is no longer subject to Local Disk Manager (LDM) limits or prone to excessive storage allocations. This simplifies management by eliminating the need for manual adjustments when data sources expand or contract.
• Resilient Change Tracking (RCT): DPM 2016 uses Hyper-V's Resilient Change Tracking (RCT) to eliminate time lost performing consistency checks. For incremental backups, RCT transfers only changed blocks on a virtual machine's VHD. RCT technology is more resistant to data corruption than change tracking based on Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) snapshots. RCT automatically preserves change tracking in case of a host failure or a virtual machine migration.
• Rolling OS Upgrades: Windows Server 2016 introduced cluster-aware rolling updates for migrating from Windows 2012 to Windows 2016. This allows DPM 2016 to provide uninterrupted protection for virtual machines during the upgrade process and helps you stay compliant with backup service level agreements (SLAs). For details about Windows Server 2016 rolling OS upgrades, visit Windows Server 2016 rolling OS upgrade consulting.
• Backup for Shielded VM: Shielded VM is a feature introduced by Windows Server 2016 designed to prevent malicious administrators and malware with stolen administrative rights from accessing or altering sensitive data on virtual machines secured by TPM encryption. SCDPM 2016 allows transparent backup and recovery of virtual machines secured by Shielded VM. For details about Shielded VM technology, see Windows Server 2016 Shielded VM consulting.
• Backup for Storage Spaces Direct: Windows Server 2016 also introduced Storage Spaces Direct, or S2D. This allows you to use commodity off-the-shelf servers with locally attached hard disks and/or solid state disks to create a shared pool of high-availability clustered storage. This is a low-cost and easy-to-manage alternative to proprietary and complex SAN solutions. DPM 2016 can backup and restore Hyper-V virtual machines that use S2D in both disaggregated and hyper-converged deployments. To find out more about Storage Spaces Direct, visit Windows Server 2016 Storage Spaces Direct consulting.
• Backup for Virtual Machines on ReFS-based SOFS Clusters: SCDPM 2016 can back up and restore virtual machines deployed on scale-out file server (SOFS) clusters that are based on Microsoft's ReFS file system.

Progent can also provide advanced VMware consulting and Linux expertise to help you protect cross-platform systems, and Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE network consultants can help you design, deploy and troubleshoot a resilient and secure network infrastructure that supports multiple sites and features efficient cloud connectivity for hybrid environments.

SCDPM 2016 can play a pivotal role in your disaster recovery strategy and Progent offers expert disaster recovery planning consulting and business continuity planning consulting to help you design, test, and document a DR/BC plan that meets your business needs and complies with industry requirements and government regulations. If your RPO and RTO requirements for business-critical applications call for zero-data-loss recovery point and near-zero recovery time objectives, Progent can help you plan and deploy high-availability solutions based on continuous synchronous replication between clusters located within metropolitan distances. For zero-data-loss protection, Progent offers Windows Storage Replica consulting, VMware Site Recovery Manager consulting, and NetApp MetroCluster consulting.

Progent's certified information assurance consultants can help you design security policies, implement information protection technologies like Shielded VM, audit and validate the compliance of your Data Protection Manager environment, and help you identify and resolve security vulnerabilities.

To find out more about how Progent can help you with System Center 2016 Data Protection Manager, phone 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.

Progent's Consulting Services for Microsoft-based Technology
Progent's Microsoft-certified consultants have the depth and breadth of expertise to serve as your one-stop source for advanced consulting and troubleshooting support for Microsoft platforms. Progent can assist businesses of any size to plan, implement, administer, and repair deployments of Microsoft technology by delivering services that include:

• Windows Server 2022 configuration expertise
• Windows Server 2019 hybrid cloud integration
• Windows Server 2016 migration consulting
• Windows Server 2012 R2 support services
• Microsoft SQL Server 2016 integration and development
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 migration
• Exchange Server 2013 consulting
• SharePoint development and support
• Hyper-V consulting
• VMware consulting
• System Center 2016 hybrid-cloud management
• Systems Center 2016 Operations Manager planning and integration
• Configuration Manager 2016 consulting and troubleshooting
• Microsoft Azure hybrid-cloud integration services

Find out more details about Progent's Consulting and Support Services for Microsoft .NET Server Technology.