Demand for continuous data protection is growing as more businesses realize they not only need to back up the data on their networks as changes are made but also be able to recover that data quickly. Nearly every storage vendor has acknowledged developing a continuous or near-continuous data protection scheme for retrieving even the most recently saved data.

“All the offerings share the common good of dramatically improving recovery point objectives vs. traditional nightly full or incremental backups,” says Steve Duplessie, senior analyst and founder of Enterprise Strategy Group. “Continuous data protection vs. near-CDP might mean the difference between recovery points of 1 second or 1 hour. Either is much better than what we do today.”

At the Storage Decisions conference in New York Sept. 26, Microsoft is expected to announce the availability of its System Data Protection Manager (DPM) software, which installs on Windows Server 2003 and performs a series of snapshots of data that can be recovered by end users. It will be priced at $950.

A variety of Microsoft partners are set to announce they will market DPM appliances or integrate their software with DPM.

Among those vendors are EqualLogic, which will support Microsoft DPM with its PS Series family of iSCSI-based storage arrays; and Commvault, whose Qinetix data management software Microsoft will integrate into its System Data Protection Manager. Also on stage with Microsoft will be Dell, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Computer Associates and HP, which recently unveiled the ProLiant DL 380 G4 Data Protection Storage Server.

Quantum also is reported to be releasing a DPM appliance that is integrated into its DX Series disk-to-disk products. Storactive is set to announce a new version of its LiveBackup software for protecting desktop and laptop data. And Fujitsu Siemens, Europe’s largest computer maker, recently said it would soon introduce a preconfigured appliance based on its FibreCAT hardware and on DPM.

Mendocino Software also is expected to announce its RecoveryOne software at Storage Decisions. RecoveryOne is installed on an industry-standard server of a customer’s choosing and continuously backs up all network data - both file and block - and recovers that data from any point in time.