Idealstor Adds CDP to Backup Repertoire That Includes 'Ejectable' Disks

Published: July 12, 2006

by Alex Woodie

When Idealstor launched its series of disk-to-disc (D2D) backup appliances in January 2003, the solution's main claim to fame was that users could eject their backup disks and ship them offsite for safekeeping, much as they were accustomed to doing with tape. On Monday, the company launched a new release of its Ibac software that provides continuous data protection (CDP) capabilities to Windows servers and works with a range of D2D devices from Idealstor and other manufacturers, bolstering the company's future in software.

Idealstor, like many in the IT business, recognized the advantages of backing up data to disk instead of tape. Because disk can read and write faster than tape, backups and recoveries take less time, thereby enabling organizations to keep their critical servers online.

However, when it comes to safeguarding the media holding the data, disk has traditionally fallen short of tape. Tape's superior portability has led many organizations to connect tape drives to their D2D devices, which addresses the portability problem with disk, but also introduces another layer of cost and complexity to the backup process.

Idealstor responded to this market need by unveiling a line of D2D devices that feature so-called "ejectable" disks. By removing the entire hard drive from the D2D device, an organization can safeguard its data from local and regional disasters, while at the same time forestalling the added complexity of a D2D2T solution.

You might be wondering how this could possibly work in the real world. After all, aren't hard disks the IT equivalent of nitroglycerin? Look at it wrong, and it just might explode.

Ben Ginster, channel marketing manager for Idealstor, says the company addressed this concern by engineering a proprietary line of hardware bays and controllers. "When you eject the disk, it powers down and parks the head on a non written part of the disk. You also put it in a caddy, a protective storage box," he says.

In the end, the disk is just as protected as a tape, Ginster says. "What happens if you drop a tape? The same sort of thing," he says. In other words, you have probably destroyed the tape or disk. Blunt force trauma aside, disk offers superior durability, he says. "Unlike a tape, which should be replaced after nine months of use, these disks should last a minimum of five years."

Today, the company offers three D2D lines: FrankeNAS, Idealstor Backup Appliance, and Idealstor SATA. These devices range from a single-bay Backup Appliance running Windows XP and equipped with a single 500 GB SATA drive, up to the eight-bay, Windows Server 2003 and twin Intel Xeon-powered, 6 TB FrankeNAS device, where half the drives function as a RAID-5 array, and the other half features removable hard drives. The devices, which range in price from $4,300 for the single bay, to $16,000 to the FrankeNAS, work with the major backup utilities for Windows, including Bakbone, CA, Double-Take, Microsoft, and Symantec. More than 500 customers have purchased Idealstor's hardware products, Ginster says.

While Idealstor's devices support the major third-party backup utilities, the company realized these solutions may be overkill for some of its customers, which are mostly small and mid size businesses, so in 2005 it launched its own backup software, called Ibac. This agent-less solution was somewhat unique when it was launched because it kept the data in its original format, so there was no need to run a restore operation. Users could simply open the desired folder, then drag and drop the files or foldersin their rightful place.

Ibac 4.0 builds on this foundation with the introduction of CDP capabilities. Ibac 4.0, which now requires the use of an agent on the server or PC being backed up, delivers true CDP capabilities, as opposed to pseudo CDP. What this means is every byte-level change is monitored by the product. It is continuously running, and doesn't require periodic snapshots to be taken of the data, as pseudo CDP solutions require.

"We literally backup every single I/O. If Exchange dies or gets corrupted at 2:29, you go back to 2:28," Ginster says. "To be honest, it's not simple to do [restore the changes], but once you do it once or twice, you understand what to do." It's more of an administrator's tool and isn't for use by regular users, he says. "Even if users had that option, an administrator wouldn't want the user touching the data."

Ibac 4.0 supports the NTFS used in Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000, and is designed primarily to add an additional layer of protection to critical Windows servers, such as those running Exchange Server or SQL Server. Support for Linux and Unix may be delivered by the end of the year, Ginster says.

Idealstor is delivering support for CDP as an additional option for Ibac customers. Ibac without the CDP option starts at a base price of $800, and each additional database server costs $750. The CDP option adds about $1,500 per server onto that base price, with a minimum requirement of at least two servers (a source and a target), for a starting price of about $3,000.

Ginster says the new CDP functionality in Ibac gives Idealstor an edge among SMB clients over more expensive backup solutions from the larger vendors. Add the fact that Idealstor also offers removable hard drives, and Ginster says the company offers a solid value proposition to customers.

The introduction of CDP also strengthens Idealstor's standing as a software company. "We're not going to walk away from the hardware. We still have a unique product, and this makes it a lot easier to open up the opportunities," Ginster says. "We were a hardware company that kind of has software, but now they're on an even plane."