Catalogic Software Expands Data Management Platform To IBM Storage, Cloud

Copy data management software developer Catalogic Software has expanded its technology to work with IBM's storage, storage virtualization and cloud technologies.

Catalogic Software, which this week worked together with IBM to demonstrate the new capabilities of its flagship ECX applications at a live event, is working to provide a heterogeneous solution for managing vast amounts of copy data, said Ed Walsh, CEO of the Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based software developer.

"Our IBM solution set is similar to programs we have with NetApp and EMC," Walsh told CRN.

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Catalogic Software provides IT modernization through in-place copy data management by adding its software on top of a customer's existing storage and hypervisor infrastructure, Walsh said.

Within 15 minutes, customers can have copy data management self-service capabilities, according to the company. "Usually, with IBM or other storage vendors, it takes three to four weeks to provision storage," he said. "We provide templates and role-based access to data to save businesses time and make them more efficient."

The Catalogic offering also helps quickly automate disaster recovery and test and development capabilities, provides data protection, provides DevOps capabilities, and takes customer data to hybrid clouds, Walsh said.

"Key to our solution set is, you don't have to change what you have," he said.

As customers continue to increasingly adopt software-defined storage and cloud-based solutions, they need better ways to go between private and public clouds, and Catalogic Software is a great solution for doing so, said Scott Robinson, Minneapolis area director at Alliance Technology Group, a Hanover, Md.-based solution provider.

"Copy data management is important in test-dev and archiving," Robinson told CRN. "I see a lot of other vendors doing copy data management, but most are hardware or appliance solutions. And I'm seeing companies like Commvault starting to tell the same story. But Catalogic's approach with its algorithm solution is different."

Catalogic's ECX solution works with IBM storage technologies in multiple forms, Walsh said. It interfaces with IBM's Storwize hybrid flash arrays and its SAN Volume Controller storage virtualization solution to enhance their data management capabilities, with IBM's FlashSystem V9000 all-flash storage array for improved disaster recovery, replication and DevOps capabilities, with IBM SoftLayer for hybrid cloud operations, and with IBM Spectrum Protect software for rapid recovery in case of disasters, he said.

Catalogic Software's ECX solution is a good way for solution providers to add value to customers' existing storage infrastructures, said Bill Simpson, vice president of channel sales for Catalogic.

Simpson, who in December joined Catalogic after a four-year-plus stint as vice president of worldwide sales at Natick, Mass.-based Nasuni, told CRN that Catalogic has been moving to bring a channel-first approach to the company's sales, and now expects all sales to go through its channel partners.

"VARs are good at farming their customer base," he said. "We tell partners they can grow their base by using what their customers already have. And partners can expand that storage across arrays they didn't sell. So even in cases where they didn't get a deal because someone else got the deal registration, they can go in and still add value."

While IBM is not reselling the Catalogic Software ECX solution, it is meeting Catalog in the channel, Simpson said.

"IBM told its VARs to give us a call," he said. "We're getting inbound calls from IBM partners already."