HDS Hitches Commvault's CDP

HDS fleshed out its CDP story today, extending its OEM agreement with CommVault and targeting branch offices as part of an ongoing overhaul of its storage portfolio. (See CommVault Adds CDP to HDS, Sun Shifts SAN to HDS, and BlueArc Boosts Performance.)

The vendor, which already resells CommVault's data management products, will now sell its partner's Continuous Data Replicator. HDS will target the software at remote offices in an attempt to tap into users' paranoia about lost data. (See The Personal Side of Tape Loss and Insider: Spend Wisely on Backup.)

HDS, like its rivals NetApp and EMC, has dragged its heels in the area of NAS-based CDP and appears to be still some way from a "full CDP" offering. (See EMC Takes CDP Downmarket and Exanet Dips Toe in CDP Pool.) CommVault's product is a "near-CDP" technology. (See Crowded Data Pool, New Wave of CDP Rolls In, Mendocino Embraces Near-CDP, and Clusters & CDP: Well Matched.)

True CDP, which is offered by the likes of Mendocino, is real-time capture of each block- or file-level write operation, which lets customers go back to any point in time to recover information when data is lost due to a system crash or human error. Near-CDP offers less granular recovery, usually through frequent snapshots. (See Fine Granularities and CDP Report Card.)

NetApp, for its part, acquired CDP technology when it bought Alacritus in 2005 but hasn't yet rolled out a full CDP product, although it does support snapshots on its NAS systems. (See NetApp Annexes Alacritus.)Most users find "near CDP" sufficient for their backup purposes, says Dave West, CommVault's vice president of marketing, adding that a large percentage of remote office data is currently unprotected.

Continuous Data Replicator copies file changes of remote data to a central location, he told Byte and Switch, where Hitachi's backup and recovery software is then used to back up the replicated data. The idea here is that users can avoid the personnel costs and security hassle associated with remote backups.

The exec refused to reveal whether full CDP is on CommVault's roadmap, although at least one analyst told Byte and Switch that some CIOs are already clamoring for the technology. "The demand [for full CDP] is there from some customers with very aggressive recovery objectives for certain applications," says Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Lauren Whitehouse, adding that database and financial services applications are driving this demand.

HDS's long-term strategy concerning CDP is still somewhat unclear given that the CommVault deal appears primarily to be a midrange play. Last week, for example, there were indications that HDS would get high-end CDP technology from its OEM relationship with BlueArc, which is currently looking at full CDP. (See HDS, BlueArc in Big NAS Deal and HDS Hikes High-End NAS.)

HDS was playing its cards close to its chest today. John Mansfield, vice president of product management at HDS, told Byte and Switch that the CommVault technology will not be the vendor's exclusive CDP offering, although he refused to reveal any other roadmap details. "We're going to offer CDP through a variety of mechanisms," he added, somewhat mysteriously.Today's deal nonetheless reflects a change in how firms are approaching remote site backup. (See Users Debate Backup Trends.) "For the last few years, remote offices and branch offices were pretty much left to their own devices," says Lauren Whitehouse of the Enterprise Strategy Group, adding that most firms opted to backup their data at a local site.

According to recent research from the Enterprise Strategy Group, some 90 percent of firms are still performing local backups of their data, in many cases sending tapes around the country. "Transporting tapes between remote offices and data centers creates all sorts of security issues," explains Whitehouse, alluding to the storage snafus that have blighted the likes of Time Warner and Iron Mountain. (See The Year in Insecurity and Tape Security Trips Up Users.)

More and more firms are also looking to consolidate their remote office hardware. "Doing local backups means that that they need staff and equipment at the local site," says Whitehouse. "[CDP] is making it more feasible to do backups over the WAN and minimize staff and equipment onsite."

Pricing for the Continuous Data Replicator ranges from $1,150 to $3,450 per server, although HDS has not yet revealed when it will be available.

James Rogers, Senior Editor Byte and Switch