Hewlett-Packard moved into the data and retrieval market
with the release of Reference Information Storage System
(RISS).
The bundle of software, server and storage hardware for
archiving, indexing and retrieving data is based on the Persist
technology the company acquired last November. The system itself is
being pitched as the first of a series of application-specific
information lifecycle management (ILM) offerings, with ERP and
databases on the way.
RISS links Persist’s archiving technology with HP ProLiant
x86-based servers and MSA storage to allow, among other things,
e-mails to be archived and indexed. They can be searched, not only
by subject line, but also by content. The potential is clear and
should appeal to companies developing a compliance strategy.
Since the volume of e-mails (and similar data) stored looks set
to grow considerably thanks to legislation, the storage
infrastructure behind RISS needs to be able to grow without
additional configuration, and to this end RISS is the first to
include the storage grid capabilities HP has been working on for
several years.
The Persist software digitally signs and timestamps any data it
stores. It can also store the data on what are effectively Write
Once Read Many or WORM disks. All of these facilities can be used
to show that the content of a file or data object has not changed,
and so help with compliance needs.
Duplicate copies of data can be avoided and, because queries are
executed in parallel, searches complete faster. The search tool is
integrated with Microsoft Outlook and can also be used via a
browser.
RISS uses open standards including HTTP, Soap, SMTP, and IMAP4,
and data can be archived according to different file
characteristics and types. So, for example, attachments from
specific e-mail senders could be automatically migrated to the
archive and deleted from the recipient’s in-box. Myriad e-mail
users’ .pst files can be consolidated into a central e-mail archive
stored in the RISS grid, and so on.
Frank Harbist, vice president of storage software at HP, said
that while the storage grid technology in RISS is from Persist, the
company intends to introduce its own.
"As we evolve we'll enhance and improve its capabilities with
the institutional knowledge and expertise we’ve gained from our own
virtualisation developments."
He referred here to both the Casa in-band virtualisation device
already in the market from HP, a technology it gained when it
acquired StorageApps in 2001, and to the VersaStor out-of-band
technology Compaq had been developing for a couple of years before
it was acquired by HP.
Despite scepticism, HP insisted it would continue with VersaStor
when it had already spent almost $400m on StorageApps but it has
never brought it to market and Harbist admitted there are now no
plans to do so.
“We had it working in the lab, but it didn’t pass the mustard in
terms of business viability,” he said. “We took a business decision
at the tail end of last year not to bring the product to market
based on cost and complexity, and the fact that it wasn’t meeting
customer needs.”
VersaStor was developed to run on intelligent switches by
companies such as Cisco Systems and Brocade Communications Systems,
but Harbist said that, while discussions continue, work is now on a
back burner. VersaStor developers were instead redirected to
storage grid developments, and RISS is the first product out of the
gate. Similar ILM products will be launched for database and ERP
archiving, and HP has signed up Princeton Softech to help deliver
them.
With ILM, data is moved to lower-cost media once its access rate
has dropped, and so HP will be adding support for other types of
media besides SCSI disks. A SATA enclosure will be announced in the
third quarter, while Serial-Attached SCSI will be added once it
becomes generally available at the end of the year. Tape support
will also be added shortly.
A base RISS appliance with 4TB of capacity will start at around
£250,000. Specific applications such as e-mail archiving will cost
extra.
Rik Turner and Chris Mellor writes for
Techworld.com