Maxava Taps Baseline to Resell HA in the Cloud

September 4, 2012 Alex Woodie

Baseline Data Services, an Indiana IT services firm that specializes in disaster recovery and data storage, has partnered with IBM i high availability software developer Maxava. Baseline will use Maxava HA to replicate customer data to the IBM i backup servers it runs in its data center.

The cloud land grab is in full swing in the IT world. While non IBM i customers appear more willing to run production apps in a cloud provider’s data center, few IBM i customers appear willing to make that jump. There is one area, however, where the cloud has generated a good deal of activity in the IBM i community over the past year, and that’s high availability and disaster recovery hosting.

Baseline Data Services is the latest cloud provider/data center operator to jump into the IBM i hosted HA and DR biz. As part of the deal with Maxava unveiled last month, the company will help install Maxava HA on a client’s production server and point it to either a dedicated or shared backup server located in its Indianapolis data center. It will also continuously monitor the state of replication, address any issues, and keep the system role-swap ready.

“With the Maxava software, we can offer more secure and cost-effective options to IBM i users,” Baseline president and CEO Lance Thompson says in a press release. “Companies can immediately migrate from tape backups to a replication environment with real-time backups via our cloud or co-location services. This is especially important for sites with recovery time objectives of one hour or less.”

Baseline has been in the DR and data storage business for 20 years. Over that time, the company says it has successfully dealt with more than 100 disaster declarations by its customers. In addition to IBM i, the company has expertise and investment in AIX, Linux, Unisys Clearpath, Oracle Solaris, Microsoft Windows, and VMware environments. It also uses i365‘s EVault software to back up IBM i servers to its storage facility over the Internet; Vision Solutions‘ DoubleTake and VMware’s VMotion are used to provide resiliency to X86 applications. The company’s DR facility is a SAS70 Type II-compliant data center. It features a raised floor, fire suppression, 1 million watt electrical connection, and Liebert UPS and cooling controls.

The deal marks a win for Maxava, the New Zealand company that has been fighting for share in the highly competitive U.S. high availability software market for the last decade. In March, the company launched a cloud microsite, and touted that it had more than 150 customers running its software in the cloud.