Vision Updates CDP Tool with Automated Recovery Feature

Published: June 8, 2010

by Alex Woodie

Vision Solutions recently launched a new release of RecoverNow, its continuous data protection (CDP) offering for System i servers that augments traditional tape backups with faster and more granular disk-based protection. With RecoverNow version 5.1, the company has added a new automated recovery feature that should simplify the task of recovering i/OS data following an outage or accidental deletion.

In the world of high availability, CDP is gaining momentum as a more user-friendly method of recovering lost files and (in the i/OS world) objects. The technology basically enables users to recover data as it existed at practically any point in time in the past--a very useful capability to have when there is concern about how up-to-date a backup is. Because it runs continuously, CDP provides a much finer recovery point objective (RPO) than tape-based backups running once every 24 hours can ever hope to provide. It's not exactly time travel, but it might be the closest thing to it that IT has come up with.

Vision provides CDP capability through two of its products: RecoverNow, a disaster recovery (DR) solution that's targeted at the i/OS platform, and EchoStream, a DR and high availability (HA) solution that's targeted at AIX environments.

RecoverNow uses i/OS journaling to provide near continuous protection for i/OS data and objects. It also enables users to store backups on practically any device, including other System i servers; X64-based servers running Windows, Linux, or Unix; and SAN or NAS storage devices. As an added bonus, the software can be used to manage tape-based backups (because few organizations are actually ditching their tape), and also provides save-while-active capabilities.

With RecoverNow version 5.1, Vision has bolstered the CDP product's all-important recovery mechanism with a new automated "recovery assistant." Vision says this new assistant makes recoveries more reliable and faster.

The new recovery assistant replaces a software-based checklist that was previously used, according to Bill Hammond, director of product marketing for Vision. Under the old technique, the check list would keep the customer aware of exactly what steps needed to be taken during a recovery, and in what order.

With the recovery assistant, Vision has removed some potential for errors. Customers are now walked through the recovery process. "This step-by-step process is automated for the customer," Hammond says via e-mail. "This means there is less manual process involved in the recovery and less potential for errors."

One RecoverNow customer that's getting good use out of the new recovery assistant is Austin Bank, a Texas-based community bank that's owned and operated by the prominent Austin family. The bank has 27 locations in East Texas, and has more than $1 billion in assets. Dennis Means, the bank's assistant vice president and data processing manager, says "the retrievals are both faster and easier" with the new recovery assistant included in version 5.1.

Pricing for RecoverNow starts at $4,000. For more information on RecoverNow, or to read Vision's new CDP white paper, titled "The Benefits of Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for IBM i and AIX Environments," visit www.visionsolutions.com.

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