InfoStor : Double-Take does DR for second-tier servers, September 2008 Page 1

By Kevin Komiega

September 22, 2008 -- Double-Take Software has released Livewire, a new disaster-recovery tool for second-tier servers that are low on the priority list in most DR plans.

Livewire sets up continuous full system image backups to a central disk-based recovery server that can be local or at a remote site. Because Livewire copies full system images, everything on the protected server -- including data, applications, operating system, and configuration information -- is continuously replicated, allowing the entire server to be restored to its most recent state or to a previous point-in-time snapshot. Livewire can also restore server images to dissimilar physical servers or virtual machines based on VMware ESX Server.

Double-Take's director of solutions engineering, Bob Roudebush, says Livewire was designed specifically to protect servers assigned to lower tiers of the disaster-recovery plan.

"Livewire addresses a gap between backups and real-time replication and fail-over for Tier-1 servers," says Roudebush. "Second-tier servers and the data on them are important to the business, but they aren't the first priority for recovery after a disaster."

Roudebush says the lower recovery priority on these servers has relegated them to tape backup, which requires a lengthy and manual restore process, including the loss of any changes made since the last backup. Servers protected by Livewire are kept up-to-date on disk and are ready to recover to any physical or virtual machine in just hours -- or less, depending on the size of the server.

Along with its byte-level replication for both physical and virtual environments, Livewire also supports many-to-one configurations where multiple production systems can be protected to a single image server. Other features include an option that enables physical- to-virtual and physical-to-physical migrations, while providing the ability to repurpose the Livewire licenses after migration for ongoing protection.

Livewire is being sold as both a stand-alone product and as an option for Double-Take's flagship replication-and-recovery software. The stand-alone version is priced at $1,295 per protected server. The Livewire Option for Double-Take replaces the Server Recovery Option for the software and is priced at $595 per server for existing users.

Double-Take plans to expand its virtual server support beyond VMware ESX Server to include Microsoft Hyper-V and possibly Citrix XenServer, according to Roudebush.

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