HP Preps New Data Life-Cycle Offerings

RIM for Databases 2.0 now uses HP’s OuterBay technology to automatically migrate and convert tables in an operational database into an open XML format, which can be archived to RISS or onto WORM (write once, read many) tape. In this way, the data can be accessed even if the original application that created it is obsolete.

HP is also releasing RIM for Files, an application that continuously captures files from Windows-based file servers and PCs for archiving to RISS.This application features block single instancing, which eliminates duplicate blocks of data within multiple copies of a file in order to cut the amount of storage capacity required, said Harbist.

Another new offering is version 6.0 of OpenView Storage Data Protector software for automated data backup and recovery. New with version 6.0 is virtual full backups, also known as synthetic backups.

Once a complete data set is backed up once, subsequent backups are done only to incremental changes. Data Protector 6.0 also automates the backup and recovery of Microsoft Exchange and SQL applications and databases for instant recovery in the case of a system failure.

Carl Wolfston, director of Headlands Associates, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based solution provider, said capabilities such as virtual full backups and automated Exchange and SQL recovery put HP’s Data Protector 6.0 ahead of rival applications from Symantec/Veritas that cost more.

“HP will be one of the first with virtual full backups,” Wolfston said.

For solution providers that primarily work with HP, the introduction of the new ILM technology means an opportunity to take it to a customer base that has yet to be exposed to it, said Chris Case, president of Sequel Data Systems of Austin, Texas.

“We have not offered CDP technology before, because it was still too new,” Case said.