SteelEye offers continuous data protection for Windows

PALO ALTO, USA: The SteelEye Data Replication for Windows v6, the new product that combines continuous data protection (CDP) features like any-point-in-time rewind with comprehensive data replication capabilities including support for multiple data replication targets and the ability to combine data mirrors across any combination of Local area Networks (LANs) or Wide Area Networks (WANs), has been released. Announcing the release, SteelEye Technology, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and provider of data protection and high availability solutions for Linux and Windows has said that the product is the first of its kind to combine CDP features. The combination of CDP with off-site replication assures that the critical data can be restored both in case of data corruption, viruses or user errors as well as in the face of large-scale physical disasters. SteelEye Data Replication v6 also boasts of the fastest replication speeds across WANs in the industry, the company claims.

The latest release adds "Any Point in Time Rewind," a vital element of CDP that provides the ability to rewind data back in time to any moment before the data loss occurred. In minutes, data can be restored and the activity is back to normal, says the release. Adding these capabilities to an already robust data replication solution provides organizations with a CDP option that also delivers the enhanced protection arising from more than one backup of critical business data, whether on-site or remote.

'Any point in time rewind'

CDP is a key tool which protects users from data loss caused by corruption, viruses, and user or software errors. Immediately upon noticing data integrity issues, users can mount the replicated data on a backup volume and then move backward and forward through the data stream via time stamps or other user-defined bookmarks until the optimal set of data is constructed. That data is then placed into service and normal operations resume.

Support for multiple replication targets:

For companies who need the enhanced protection of more than one backup of critical business data, SteelEye Data Replication also supports multiple replication targets, which can span any combination of local and remote sites. Local data recovery is assured by continuous backup within the local data center, while asynchronous remote data replication protects against local disasters.

Easy-to-use Data Recovery Wizard:

The process of managing data recovery is handled through a built-in Data Recovery Wizard. This simple-to-use tool guides users through the building of a new temporary dataset from the backup using timestamps or other bookmarks, validating the dataset for consistency via appropriate tools and then looping back through these steps as needed until the optimal dataset is built. An intelligent binary search technique speeds the rebuilding process to optimize recovery time. Once the desired dataset is built, the wizard places it back into service onto the production server and resumes normal business operations.

Replication speeds:

SteelEye Data Replication v6 delivers the industry's fastest replication speeds across WANs in order to ensure complete and continuous data protection, according to the release. Through the use of software techniques that assure a constant and optimal flow of data across any wide-area connection, regardless of latency, SteelEye Data Replication achieves over 90 per cent bandwidth utilization without the need for hardware accelerators or compression devices and provides the highest WAN throughput of any software- based replication solution on the market today, claims SteelEye. For environments where even greater throughput is desired, this updated version also includes an integrated compression engine that can be tuned by users to one of nine compression levels.

In order to manage the accelerated network traffic, per-mirror replication throttles, also called speed limits, have been implemented to provide administrators complete control over cross-site bandwidth usage.

"As a long-time SteelEye reseller, we have helped many customers solve their high availability and disaster recovery needs. Some recent examples include Cabot Square Capital and New Star Asset Management. This new release of SteelEye Data Replication delivers additional features that allow us to serve an expanded set of customers and bring greater value to existing accounts," said Shobana Patel, Managing Director of Open Minds.

What's more?

SteelEye Data Replication for Windows provides host-based volume data replication services that deliver the highest levels of data availability for Windows 200x server.

Used by itself, SteelEye Data Replication delivers real-time backup of business critical data across either a Wide or Local Area connection enabling implementations of disk-to-disk backup solutions, volume snapshots and remote data mirroring. When combined with LifeKeeper for Windows High Availability Clustering, the building of cluster configurations ranging from low-cost two node shared nothing clusters to geographically-dispersed clusters for disaster recovery protection is enabled.