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NEW PRODUCTS The 3.5 version of UltraBac Software’s UBDR Gold backup and disaster-recovery software includes the ability to restore to partitions of any size (regardless of the original’s size) and enables users to specify drivers during both the boot and restore processes. For example, users can restore the backup of a 200GB disk to a 160GB disk. UBDR automatically records and displays the original media’s key information, including disk and partition size, in each backup set. In addition, administrators can specify a new or alternate driver during the disaster-recovery restore process, which can be advantageous when restoring to dissimilar hardware. The UBDR Gold is priced from $995 per server. Backup software targets ROBOsROBObak has introduced an integrated suite of backup/recovery/archive software consisting of its eponymous ROBObak software and a number of other existing and new modules. As the name suggests, the software is aimed at remote offices and branch offices (ROBOs). The suite consists of
Open File Manager has been shipping through the channel for about four years (and the company claims more than 10,000 customers); ROBObak and the encryption module have been available for about a year; and ROBOark, as well as the integrated suite, was officially released earlier this summer. Features include hot file backup, delta blocking, agent-less installation and administration, disk-based backup, block-level data de-duplication, compression, and bare-metal recovery. Another feature, dubbed Advanced File Crawl, gives IT administrators the ability to locate and protect any file type on any system throughout a LAN or remote offices within seconds. The software installs on a Windows platform on a local LAN, but can back up virtually all platforms, and once the initial backup is completed the software backs up only changed blocks. Pricing for the core software begins at less than $2,000 for 200GB of capacity; a version for protecting 1TB is priced at slightly less than $10,000. Overland RAID scales to 72TBOverland Storage has added the model 4800 to its line of Ultamus RAID arrays, which is based on SATA drives with scalability to 36TB in a 4U rack configuration (with 48 SATA drives), or up to 72TB in an 8U configuration. Features include dual 4Gbps Fibre Channel host connections, a 3Gbps Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) architecture, dual active-active RAID controllers, and support for RAID 0/1/5/10/50 and RAID 6. Pricing starts at $46,861. Infortrend ships SAS-SAS arrayAccording to a recent report from the Gartner Dataquest market research firm, disk drive manufacturers shipped 4.15 million Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives in 2006, representing 11.2% of all multi-user drive shipments and bringing total SAS shipments to approximately 4.5 million units. Gartner expects SAS drive shipments to approach 12 million units this year, surpassing shipments of Ultra320 parallel SCSI drives. One of the more-recent product entries in the SAS market is Infortrend’s EonStor (ES) S12S-G1030, which is the company’s first “pure” SAS array-e.g., it has both front-end (host) and back-end (disk) SAS connections. The 2U, 12-bay, single-controller RAID subsystem supports SAS and/or SATA disk drives and comes with four “wide” SAS host ports with 12Gbps bandwidth and more than 760MBps aggregate throughput, according to Infortrend officials. The ES S12S-G1030 also has a built-in SAS expansion port that can connect to as many as four ES S12S-J1000-G SAS JBOD arrays for a maximum of 45TB of capacity when configured with 60 750GB SATA drives. In addition to supporting all RAID levels, the SAS-SAS subsystem supports RAID 6 (dual parity) for protection against two simultaneous drive failures. Infortrend also introduced SANWatch snapshot software, which enables point-in-time copies of data, for its EonStor ASIC400 subsystems. Features include copy-on-write technology, hardware-based snapshots (which offloads the host CPU), and automated snapshot pruning to recycle storage space either by selected capacity or time thresholds. For more information on SAS, visit
Siafu supports LTO-4Siafu Software’s Sypher series of tape encryption appliances now support LTO-4 drives/libraries, as well as other tape formats. The company’s appliances include data encryption (256-bit AES) and compression technology; work with most backup applications; provide automated key management; and are designed for IP SAN environments. Sypher encryption appliances are priced from $6,995. Yosemite supports encryptionYosemite Backup 8.5 data-protection software supports hardware encryption offered by LTO-4 tape drives. The 8.5 release allows users to employ LTO-4’s hardware-based, 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) or 128/256-bit AES software encryption and compression. Hardware-based encryption advantages include the ability to write encrypted and compressed data to tape without adding overhead to the backup server or sacrificing security. Yosemite Backup 8.5 takes advantage of the multi-stream capability and faster throughput of LTO-4 by offering up to eight concurrent data streams. EqualLogic delivers free snapshotsEqualLogic added a new feature to its software stack with the launch of Smart Copy, a free tool designed to help IT administrators create quick snapshots of Microsoft SQL Server databases and NTFS file systems in Windows environments. The Smart Copy capability is included with the company’s Auto-Snapshot Manager and works with the PS Series of iSCSI-based IP SANs to produce host-integrated snapshots, clones, and replicas of databases and file systems for development, testing, or recovery purposes. Smart Copy, which is available as a standard feature with PS Series storage arrays, allows Windows administrators to improve the speed and reliability of database and file recovery and testing operations. Smart Copy works with both Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and with third-party backup packages. Arkeia protects multi-site officesArkeia’s EdgeFort is an all-in-one data-protection appliance that integrates the company’s network backup software with a backup hardware system, including disk and tape drives. The “federated” data-management architecture allows remote and centralized data protection, which makes it possible for ROBOs to back up, restore, and archive critical data without the intervention of local IT personnel. Imation rolls out online backupImation’s DataGuard Vault online backup-and-recovery service is a nationwide service for SMBs and ROBOs. DataGuard automatically secures files and transfers them off-site to a class-one data center through the Internet or a private network connection, providing SMBs and ROBOs with a 24x7 option for backup and recovery. Features include an agent-less architecture, bare-metal restore, a local restore option, and disaster recovery. Sanbolic accelerates NASA new component of Sanbolic’s Melio cluster file system results in faster performance in clustered NAS systems for write-intensive applications using network file serving installations. Melio FS now implements the network redirector oplock protocol, which defines the interaction between the file system and network-sharing service. This enables clients to cache via their network redirector in clustered file serving installations, and improves performance in network operations such as file open, file attributes updates, and file data write. Sanbolic also claims this architecture yields increases in performance as network communication is no longer required for each operation. For example, an application writing 200-byte blocks would not wait for a network round-trip time for each write, but the data would be grouped and sent asynchronously to the Storage Server running Melio FS, without blocking the application. Using Melio FS, multiple Windows Storage Server file-serving appliances can be clustered into a common file system on external SAN storage. All storage servers have concurrent read-and-write access to the shared storage using Sanbolic’s clustered file system so a file call can be processed by any of the storage servers. Hifn ships security chipStorage and security silicon specialist Hifn recently began shipments of the 4450 FlowThrough security processor for replication, which combines low-latency data compression and encryption on a single processor. The 4450 is targeted at high-performance data-center and storage fabric applications and provides support for active-active and remote data facility replication. Hifn’s customers include vendors such as EMC, Hewlett Packard, Network Appliance, and Sun. The Hifn FlowThrough design enables integration into a variety of devices, including iSCSI HBAs, RAID controllers, storage arrays, and IP storage switches. The 4450 is the second-generation security processor in Hifn’s FlowThrough family. The chip provides simultaneous IPsec, IPcomp, and MACsec security processing. A single packet can be processed through all three of these protocols in a pipelined manner. The 4450 supports four full-duplex 10/100/1000 Ethernet interfaces. TMS accelerates OracleSolid state disk (SSD) manufacturer Texas Memory Systems recently announced an Oracle Accelerator Kit, which bundles the company’s RamSan SSDs with QLogic switches and host channel adapters (HCAs) for InfiniBand-based Oracle grid environments. Texas Memory claims that the kit can accelerate Oracle databases by as much as 2,500%. The kits are available in three configurations, ranging from 32GB of SSD capacity to 128GB with the RamSan-400 SSDs.
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