GRAPEVINE, Texas --
Data protection products are front and
center this week at Storage Networking World (SNW), with EMC
Corp. bolstering its NetWorker backup application with data
deduplication and continuous data protection (CDP), FalconStor
Software Inc. coming out with a VTL for remote offices, and Iron
Mountain Inc. extending its Connected Backup line to Windows
print and file servers..
EMC is injecting life into its stodgy NetWorker backup
application by adding data technologies it picked up in
acquisitions during 2006. Besides integrating emerging backup
technologies into its core backup application as customers have
demanded, EMC is clarifying the direction for NetWorker.
"We've integrated all of this into EMC NetWorker," said Rob
Emsley, EMC senior director of software product marketing. "Ever
since we bought Avamar, people have asked me, 'Is Avamar your
primary backup application now?' No it isn't. NetWorker is our
central backup platform."
Since buying Avamar Technologies for $165 million and Kashya Inc.
for $153 million, EMC has sold Avamar as its deduplication product
and the RecoverPoint product it got from Kashya for CDP. Now it's
merged the Avamar agent with a new NetWorker client agent and let
the NetWorker catalog track CDP snapshots. Administrators can
manage deduplication and CDP through the NetWorker management
console.
"I look at it as the culmination of all of their data protection
technologies acquired over the last couple of years," said Steve
Norall, analyst for the Taneja Group. "It's a logical step. You can
dedupe at the source without having to use another set of
applications. And CDP is integrated into the backup and recovery
process, where before it was an adjunct."
EMC isn't finished integrating its technologies and even has
some work to do with deduplication and CDP. For instance, although
virtual tape libraries (VTLs) are considered a prime application
for deduplication, EMC has yet to add deduplication to its VTL).
Emsley said deduplication for the EMC Disk Library VTL is planned
for mid-2008.
Although CommVault Systems Inc. has put data deduplication and
continuous data replication (near CDP) into its Simpana backup
suite, EMC is ahead of its major backup rivals, Symantec Corp. and
IBM, when it comes to integrating the latest disk backup
technologies. Symantec offers a PureDisk deduplication option with
NetBackup but is still working on integrating CDP. IBM Tivoli
Storage Manager has neither deduplication nor CDP.
FalconStor launches VTLs for SMBs
FalconStor, whose enterprise VTLs are sold by EMC, IBM, Sun
Microsystems Inc. and others, is coming out with a VTL for SMBs and
remote offices. Its new offerings, FalconStor VTL Storage Appliance
and FalconStor VTL Virtual Appliance, support its Single Instance
Repository (SIR) data deduplication and will be available this
month. The appliances come in 6-, 12- and 24-drive configurations,
and the virtual appliance is a software application that runs on
VMware ESX Server.
FalconStor will sell the VTLs under its own brand and offer it
to OEM partners. John Lallier, vice president of product
technology, said there are no OEM deals to announce, but added, "I
have no doubt you'll be hearing announcements soon."
Iron Mountain extends backup
Iron Mountain is coming out with Connected Backup for Server,
aimed primarily at Connected Backup for PC customers who want to
extend protection for Windows print and file servers. Backup for
Server and Backup for PC are available as a subscription service or
licensed software. Customers that use both can manage the backups
from one console.
HDS launches low-end SAN
HDS, which has concentrated primarily on high-end enterprise
storage area networks (SAN), is now going after the SMB market with
the Hitachi Simple Modular Storage System.
Designed to be easy to set up and use, the iSCSI Windows-based
SAN features RAID 6 and a repair slot that lets users change drives
on the fly. The system is available in single- and dual-controller
configurations and supports SAS or SATA drives, scaling from just
under 1 TB to 9 TB and ranging in price from $5,000 to $13,000.
Dot Hill expands SAN family
Dot Hill Systems Corp. expanded its family of storage systems,
adding low-end iSCSI and midrange systems built on the same
architecture as its 2370 Fibre Channel SAN. The 2330 has an iSCSI
interface and holds up to 56 SAS and SATA drives with an expected
street price range of $13,000 to $21,500. The 5730 is a Fibre
Channel system that holds up to 108 SATA or SAS drives and is
expected to be priced from $26,000 to $34,000. All the systems
support RAID 6 and have super capacitors instead of batteries.
Dot Hill sells its systems through OEM partners, including
Network Appliance Inc., (NetApp) and Sun, but has not yet announced
any OEM deals for the new systems.
IBM, LSI, Seagate combine on full-disk encryption
IBM's Encryption Key Management software appliances, LSI Corp.'s
storage controllers and Seagate Technology's Full-Disk Encryption
(FDE) drives are being combined into a new system designed to
prevent data from being exposed when drives are removed from disk
arrays for maintenance or repurposing. Seagate said that beginning
in 2008, all of its disk drives will ship with FDE, though the
company claims users will have the option of not using drives in
"locked" or encrypted mode. FDE drives must also be added to a
"secure volume group" under a controller that supports the
encryption.
The alliance hasn't addressed how users access data on an array
if encryption keys are lost or hacked, how the system can be backed
up to nonencrypted appliances or how an encrypted system can be
repurposed at a later date. The companies said that the approval of
a Trusted Computing Group (TCG) security standard next year will
resolve the issues around interoperability. But according to IBM
senior marketing manager Allen Marin, "If you lose those
[encryption] keys, you might as well throw the [storage] box
away."
CipherMax expands encryption features
CipherMax Inc. beefed up support for its CipherMax CM140T tape
encryption devices to let administrators manage encryption keys for
LTO-4, legacy tape and VTLs through one interface. CipherMax allows
encrypted LTO-3 and LTO-2 tapes to be read in LTO-4 drives.
Symantec combines backup, systems management
Symantec has released a free downloadable "connector" that will
integrate the desktop and server management software that it gained
when it acquired Altiris in January with Backup Exec System
Recovery. The software module, called the Backup Exec System
Recovery Integration Component for Altiris, will let administrators
set up backup policies, schedule regular backups and order
unscheduled incremental backups to prepare for system maintenance
on workstations and servers through by Altiris Notification Server.
The connector is available on the Altiris Web site.
Emulex to develop FCoE products
Emulex Corp. has signed a technology agreement with a shadowy
Cisco-funded startup, Nuova Systems Inc., to help develop a line of
Emulex Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) products. Products are
expected to be available in the second half of 2008, with customer
testing beginning in the first half of 2008.
Xiotech adds automatic provisioning, Web services
Xiotech Corp. announced the Magnitude 4000 array, a spruced-up
replacement for its Magnitude 3000 product line that includes new
virtualization and development features. One such addition is what
Xiotech has dubbed Intelligent Provisioning -- the ability for
users to set predefined parameters for virtual disk size, logical
unit number (LUN) size and expansion parameters for growing volumes
and have the system perform provisioning automatically. Users with
software development skills will be able to cook up new
applications or new ways for applications to integrate with the
array through support for Web services. A new GUI offers both
storage- and server-centric views.
Fujitsu retools Eternus arrays
Fujitsu is bringing out an SMB series within its Eternus product
line, called the Eternus 2000. The new series of Fibre Channel
arrays includes the 18 TB Model 100 and the 54 TB Model 200. The
products have encryption and replication built-in, and share common
management tools with the rest of Fujitsu's arrays. Pricing starts
at $11,100. Fujitsu representatives indicated that Model 200 will
replace the low-end model in the existing Eternus 4000 line.
Arkeia adds centralized management to remote backup
appliances
Arkeia Software said it has "several dozen" users of its EdgeFort
remote office backup appliance product, made generally available in
July, and now those users will have a long-promised capability:
centralized remote management. EdgeFort boxes could previously be
managed remotely, but not in one console.
Agami supports compression for primary data
Agami Systems and Storwize (formerly known as Storwiz) Inc. will
announce that the agami Information Server now supports the
STN-6000 compression appliance from Storwize. The Storewize
appliance performs in-band data compression. The company claims a
5-to-1 data reduction ratio on CIFS and NFS traffic.
Crossroads floats raft of product enhancements
Crossroads Systems Inc. is bulking up its data protection product
lines. Crossroads is launching the ShareLoader SL1024i, an
iSCSI-based VTL appliance for remote and branch offices. It is also
adding file-level encryption to its Virtual Tape Server, which
emulates a daisy chain of direct-attached tape drives (rather than
a full library). The company has also expanded support of its
ReadVerify tape reporting and monitoring appliance to libraries of
2000 drives or more.
CommVault extends deals with Dell, HDS
Dell Inc. and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) will rebrand CommVault's
Simpana data protection software, extending OEM deals both systems
vendors already had. Dell will rebrand the software as CommVault
Simpana 7.0, while HDS will continue to call CommVault's backup
suite Hitachi Data Protection Suite (HDPS) powered by
CommVault.
IStor launches new SAN line
IStor unveiled the integraStor family of SMB iSCSI systems that
scale to 100 TB and include snapshot, CDP, and SAS and SATA
support.