StorageTek has announced a new software technology which it claims reduces backup times by more than 40%. This, says the company, can enhance customers` ability to quickly resume business in times of disaster.
The Extended High Performance Data MoveM (ExHPDM) software joins a family of enterprise storage management solutions broadly deployed across the world`s largest data management environments. It is available immediately.
StorageTek is represented in South Africa by CMS, a wholly owned subsidiary of MGX Holdings.
Constant access to data is paramount in today`s business environment, says Dan McMahon, MD of CMS. "This forces companies to conduct routine backups during off-hours. This reduces the lost productivity and profitability that result when data is unavailable to users. However, as businesses increasingly become global entities, the off-hours back-up window has been reduced, making it virtually impossible to give all users access to critical data at all times.
"ExHPDM`s ability to speed the back-up process will allow companies to reduce their downtime and overcome the problems of the shrinking back-up window," says McMahon.
In preliminary testing with ExHPDM, StorageTek realised an average 45% reduction in backup time. "It appears they can even greater time savings in the future," comments McMahon.
Today, disaster backup and recovery generally needs the same number of tape transports as disk volumes being copied. ExHPDM software`s ability to virtualise the number of tape drives installed compensates for the slower data transfer rates of disk and eliminates the need for a one-to-one ratio. Therefore, with ExHPDM, customers do not have to purchase more hardware in order to increase backup performance. ExHPDM software also allows them to maximise the often under-used performance of their already installed tape drives.
ExHPDM software extends the customer investment in existing storage devices by letting them copy twice as much data in the same amount of time. This is achieved through virtualising the number of tape drives installed. ExHPDM copies the data from multiple disk volumes and creates super blocks of data.
ExHPDM then interleaves the super blocks of data from several disk volumes to a single tape drive. By re-blocking the data, customers can store more data on each tape and maximise use of the media.
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