Insider: CDP Is Work in Progress

Despite a flurry of activity in the Continuous Data Protection (CDP) space over recent months, there is still confusion amongst users about which form of the technology to deploy, and it appears even more choices are in the offing, according to the latest Byte and Switch Insider.

The report, Continuous Data Protection: A Market Update, provides an insight into the current state of the market for CDP technologies, as well as the different approaches taken by the many vendors in this growing space.

Since the Byte and Switch Insider published its first CDP report in April 2005, there has been a lot of vendor activity. At least four companies, for example, have acquired CDP offerings, most notably EMC's $153 million purchase of Kashya. (See EMC Coughs Up for Kashya and EMC Pays $153M for Kashya.) Other vendors making moves in this space include Network Appliance, which bought Alacritus for $11 million; Atempo, which snapped up Storactive for an undisclosed sum; and security specialist SonicWall, which swallowed startup Lasso Logic. (See NetApp Annexes Alacritus, Atempo Swallows Storactive, and Firewall Vendor Hopes to Lasso CDP.)

There has also been plenty of jostling for partners, with Mendocino clinching OEM deals with EMC and HP, and Revivio signing a strategic partnership with QLogic. (See EMC Pulls Forward With Backup, HP Picks Mendocino , and Revivio Finds Buddy; Buyer Next? )

Despite all this commotion, CDP still lacks market-wide adoption, and the space, currently driven by vendor spin, remains fragmented. Users, says the report, are understandably taking a cautious approach.There is much debate about whether CDP is sustainable as a standalone market or is destined to be absorbed within other data protection platforms.

A surge in activity indicates that users will have plenty of choices to make with regard to the latter option. Symantec and XOsoft have built CDP or near-CDP into their software products, Symantec offering CDP within its Backup Exec 10d software. And Exanet today revealed plans to incorporate CDP in its clustered NAS file system, one of the first vendors to take this approach. (See Exanet Dips Toe in CDP Pool, Microsoft and Symantec Cut SMB Tape, and XOsoft Hits Rewind.)

James Rogers, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch