Linoma's Transfer Anywhere Learns New Backup Tricks

Published: August 22, 2006

by Alex Woodie

When Linoma Software launched its Transfer Anywhere utility several years ago, the product was primarily used to encrypt and deliver files over the Internet via secure FTP. These days, more customers are starting to use the versatile utility to back up their iSeries servers, and to encrypt their tapes. With the launch of Transfer Anywhere version 1.8 this month, Linoma has strengthened the utility's backup capabilities by adding new commands and speeding the recovery of encrypted data.

Transfer Anywhere is a veritable Swiss Army knife when it comes to cross-platform file distribution. As a database replication tool, the Java-based program can pump records among all the major databases. Its repertoire also includes format translation (Excel, HTML, XML, and fixed-width or delimited text files), compression (via ZIP), file-level encryption (via OpenPGP, AES, or ZIP), and secure distribution (using FTP with SSH or SSL network-level encryption).

Linoma started adding new backup capabilities to Transfer Anywhere in January, when the company launched version 1.7, which brought native OS/400 commands for encrypting and saving libraries and objects to tape and other devices (see "Linoma Expands Security Power on Data Transfer Product"). With version 1.8, Linoma has bolstered the tool's backup and encryption capabilities, and strengthened the argument for using Transfer Anywhere as a backup utility.

Transfer Anywhere uses 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for encrypting tapes. With version 1.8, the tool's AES decryption performance has been bolstered by a factor of four, which translates into faster data restore times in disaster recovery scenarios.

Linoma tested the restore performance of Transfer Anywhere version 1.8 on a fairly new System i Model 520, and found that it took about 45 seconds to decrypt a 1 GB file. This compares to about 30 seconds to encrypt the same file on the same machine. The product's encryption performance was unchanged from the previous version.

The capability to quickly recover iSeries data in a disaster recovery situation is very important to Transfer Anywhere users, says Bob Luebbe, president of Linoma. "The faster the better," he says. "We're always looking for ways to minimize the restore time."

Version 1.8 also brings a new command for encrypting and backing up OS/400 Save File objects. Linoma says that, by first saving data to Save File objects, and then encrypting and saving the backups to tapes or other media, Transfer Anywhere users can shorten their backup windows. This new command was added to the existing backup commands, including Save Library Encrypt (SAVLIBENC), Save Object Encrypt (SAVOBJENC), Restore Library Encrypted (RSTLIBENC), Restore Object Encrypted (RSTOBJENC), and others.

This release also brings a new feature to allow customers to encrypt and save only changed objects, which it says will increase the availability of a server by reducing the number of objects saved during daily backups.

While Transfer Anywhere doesn't offer the advanced features that other OS/400 backup utilities have, such as hierarchical storage management and tape management capabilities, it could be just the ticket for small to mid size shops that were previously doing manual back-ups and that need to start encrypting their data, Luebbe says. In particular, customers are interested in Transfer Anywhere's encryption capabilities. "We're finding a lot of customers are pretty new to encryption, so we're trying to put together as much documentation and phone support as possible to support them," he says.

Other new features in Transfer Anywhere 1.8 include support for SQL Server 2005. The addition of this database complements its existing support for DB2/400, DB2, Oracle, Informix, and SQL Server 2000 databases.

Transfer Anywhere's data transfer engine installs on OS/400 and Windows servers, but can replicate data among any Windows, Linux, Macintosh, or iSeries computer on the network. Users can configure the tool using wizards or execute transfers "on demand" from the Java GUI, DOS, or 5250 interfaces. Transfers can also be initiated from RPG, COBOL, C, and Java applications using Control Language, procedure calls, scheduling software, or Java APIs.

Initiating data transfers from ILE RPG, COBOL, and C programs with version 1.8 is easier thanks to the addition of a new service program, Linoma says. Lastly, this release bolsters the tool's logging capabilities with more log details, which can be sorted and filtered from within the tool.

Linoma also sells Crypto Studio (formerly PGP Studio), a tool for creating and managing PGP encryption keys. The tool lets users manually encrypt files or use these keys within Transfer Anywhere to automate the encryption process, the company says. A license of Crytpo Studio is included with the purchase of Transfer Anywhere. It can also be purchased separately for $195.

Luebbe says he's continually surprised by the creative ways his customers find to use Transfer Anywhere, which is now the Ashland, Nebraska, company's top-selling product. "It's amazing all the different things that customers seem to connect to," he says. For example, one customer recently licensed the software to connect 99 remote Informix databases to a centralized iSeries server. "Customers are using it for all sorts of things."

Transfer Anywhere version 1.8 is available now. The software requires OS/400 V5R1 or newer version of the operating system. Pricing starts at $3,995. For more information or downloads, go to www.linomasoftware.com.