CacheGuard-OS vs Neverfail HybriStor

CacheGuard-OS turns an x86 or x64 machine into a Linux network appliance for securing and optimizing network traffic. Its combined functions include firewalling, IPsec VPN, web application security, content caching, antivirus inspection and traffic shaping. Install it on bare metal or as a virtual machine, including VMware, Hyper-V and Proxmox. Administrators can configure an appliance through a CLI or browser-based Web GUI; a Manager can centrally manage multiple Gateways. The firewall uses stateful packet filtering, NAT and PAT, and the maker says it blocks common attacks such as DoS, SYN flood and IP spoofing by default. URL filtering supports lists and regular expressions, with LDAP or AD/Kerberos authentication. The WAF offers generic and custom filters, IP reputation lists and antivirus scanning. WAN tools include HTTP compression and multi-WAN routing with automatic failover. The OS is free to use. Optional subscriptions cover URL blacklists and extended antivirus signatures; Standard and Premium support also require paid subscriptions.

Neverfail HybriStor provides secondary storage and data deduplication for backup, archive, and recovery data. Its global deduplication rate is stated as up to 30:1, and Neverfail says the product can reduce primary storage costs by up to 95%. With InstaCache, users can run or mount a virtual machine from HybriStor without copying it first or rehydrating its data. The product page states ingestion throughput of up to 300 MB/s. It can replicate data to cloud storage or multiple sites, including hub-and-spoke and N-1 configurations, and send deduplicated, compressed data to an object store. The virtual appliance works with backup or archive software that writes to a NAS interface; REST API capabilities support connections to compatible backup and recovery tools. Neverfail describes AES 256-bit encryption for data in flight and at rest, plus a management platform with real-time job performance insight. HybriStor is available for Linux and self-hosted deployment. The free plan is free and includes 1TB with unlimited instances; a 45-day trial is free and includes 10TB. Pricing is also available on request.