Solution Providers Carry CDP Message

CDP refers to technologies that replicate data as changes are made, or at set periods of time, with the goal of allowing data to be recovered back to some specific point in time in case of corruption, a virus or a disaster.

Most CDP solutions copy the data changes at user-set time intervals. However, several new application-aware technologies also ensure that copies are made after a significant change to data, such as the completion of a transaction, in order to ensure that the application can be restarted at such an event. Availl, CommVault Systems, Kashya and StorServer are among the vendors offering products in this space.

Yet despite all the new products coming to market, solution providers said they still find it necessary to evangelize CDP to their clients.

Hunt Russell, sales man-ager at Evolving Solutions, a Hamel, Minn.-based IBM solution provider, said many customers are still focusing on data life-cycle management and other data-protection technologies.

“We bring it up with customers, but they have a lot of other things they need first,” Russell said. “I’m not even sure everyone in our team understands CDP. There’s a lot behind it, and it’s taking a longer cycle to understand.”

CDP is still an evolving market, and engineers from Bear Data Systems, a Belmont, Calif.-based solution provider, are enthusiastically telling customers about it, said CEO Don James. Bear Data has already sold engineering engagements around CDP to clients, but has yet to close on a customer project, James said. He said his company is getting the word out to clients via a combination of answering questions and evangelizing.

New to the CDP market is Oceanport, N.J.-based CommVault Systems, which just unveiled Gen III QiNetix Continuous Data Replicator. This enterprise CDP software integrates with Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server so that it can automatically back up a change when certain important events occur, said Chris Van Wagoner, senior director of product marketing. It also integrates with Microsoft’s Data Protection Manager to replicate DPM images and allow the recovery of the entire DPM server, if needed.

The software is scheduled to ship in January with a list price of about $1,595 per server.

Andover, Mass.-based Availl just released Availl Backup 3.0, which integrates CDP capabilities for Windows servers with the company’s Wide Area File Services technology.

A new appliance recently introduced by San Jose, Calif.-based Kashya provides CDP for Oracle and SQL databases. The KBX5000 places “intelligent bookmarks” on the data as transactions are completed in order to enable instant recovery of mission-critical applications, company officials said. The appliances are already shipping.

StorServer is now offering an optional CDP client to users of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based company’s business continuity appliances. When the CDP clients, based on IBM’s new Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files software, are copied to users’ PCs, they replicate data to the appliances for backing up and recovery in a disaster, the company said.

Each client costs $35 per PC or laptop. The business continuity appliances start at about $3,495.