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Regardless of the option you pick, the CFS and the SDDC used will reside in the same AWS AZ, this helps with speed as the data is much more local to the SDDC. So, nothing new there, if you are taking snapshots for your backups in general, then you should have zero issues with getting VCDR running! VCDR uses the VMware APIs for Data Protection (VADP), so it’s just like the majority of backup vendors on the market. Pilot Light = You have at least a 3 node VMConAWS SDDC (2 node will be supported soon) sat ready to go, and you can do all your testing in it and get all your reports for compliance etc whenever you like, and of course since the SDDC is already deployed if you have a DR event, you don’t have to wait for an SDDC to be spun up, you can get right to it.This as you can imagine has its pros and cons, the main one being a longer RTO On demand = You get the CFS and then when you want to do tests or recover, an SDDC is spun up esp for this use case.You get a Cloud File System (CFS) deployed with AWS S3 and all your VM snapshots are copied securely into there and are stored and encrypted. So VCDR works differently than let’s say SRM: Now working for Customer Success it’s my job, to help customers use things like VCDR properly and to get the most out of it, so I have been spending some solid time with VCDR and deploying it in my home lab and into a test VMConAWS SDDC. I used to be a vSphere Admin as well and I spent a lot of time using SRM with VR/ABR back in vSphere 5.5/6.5. I always used to say, you should be happy they failed now, imagine if this had been real and you couldn’t recover! As they say with backups, they are only as good as the last time you tested them. I am a big fan of DR in general, I used to work for a BC/DR provider, and I lost count of the number of times people never tested their plans and were then surprised they didn’t work as they had hoped. If you have ever used SRM, you will feel very at home with VCDR, as you will see as I explain it in more detail.
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It was acquired from Datrium and I have some customers who are in the process of looking into it and deploying it. So, let’s talk about VCDR VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery.