Data protection to take center stage

Vendors at this week's Storage Networking World conference plan to show off products that go beyond storing data to protecting it and enabling fast recovery.

The San Diego event, one of the biggest dedicated to storage, is expected to attract some 3,500 people and will feature a lineup of speakers from EMC, HP and Network Appliance, as well as from customers such as Nationwide Insurance.

FalconStor, one company scheduled to reveal products, is adding continuous and near-continuous data protection (CDP) software to its virtualization and virtual tape library products.

The FalconStor CDP IPStor Enterprise Edition software is designed to back up e-mail, files and database applications continuously, so data from any point in time can be recovered. Another new product, the CDP IPStor Remote Office Edition, provides continuous or periodic disk or file protection for servers, workstations and laptops in remote offices. FalconStor also plans to introduce the CDP IPStor SMB Edition, an appliance designed for quick setup and priced starting at $1,000. Prices for the Enterprise and Remote Office versions start at $15,000.

"CDP like FalconStor's gives users an enormous amount of granularity in their choice of when to pull back data," says Mike Karp, senior analyst for Enterprise Management Associates. "Recovery points can be defined most explicitly. The reason for that is that CDP is not time-based like snapshotting, but is event-based."

StorServer's EZ Backup Appliance also is scheduled to debut at the show; it will be available to SMBs through IBM resellers and will be bundled with Tivoli management tools. The appliance comes in three configurations: disk-to-disk, which offers backup and archives with optional tape or disk for disaster recovery; disk-to-tape, with backup, archives, an online tape pool and disaster recovery to tape; and disk-to-disk-to-tape, which offers backup, archives, an online pool of IBM TotalStorage DS4100 disk arrays and disaster recovery to tape. The appliances cost $5,000 to $15,000.

Topio plans to offer a similar appliance for midsize businesses. Code-named Roadrunner, the box sits at a remote location, where it receives data replicated from a primary site. The appliance and storage connects to the IP network and doesn't require a like device at the primary site. It will replicate data from direct-attached, iSCSI and storage-area networks. It will be sold through value-added resellers priced starting at $100,000.

Symantec's new PureDisk software is designed to protect remote offices. It costs $16,000 per terabyte backed up. A PureDisk server sits in the data center and continuously and automatically backs up servers in remote offices, eliminating tape and decreasing an office's reliance on inexperienced IT administrators.

Enterprise Storage Group estimates as much as 35% of a company's data resides in remote offices, much of which is not adequately protected.

Also at the show:

WysDM is expected to launch Version 3.5 of its backup reporting software, which introduces service-level agreement mediation. WysDM for Backups and WysDM for File Servers are priced starting at $15,000 for 50 managed devices. Another vendor, Avamar, plans to announce a storage reporting package it obtained from WysDM.