DR Picks Up Steam

Judging by a spate of recent news, it seems everybody is doing disaster recovery these days -- or at least seriously considering it.

Of course, we know that's not the case. A recent survey of more than 200 security professionals by Enterprise Strategy Group found only 18 percent believe their data is adequately protected. (See ESG: Critical Biz Data at Risk.) Yet, it's clear that more tools are becoming available for DR, and the users embracing them have moved beyond large enterprises and financial services firms.

A sampling of recent news:

• Today, startups Kashya and Sepaton said they'll combine Kashya's replication and continuous data protection (CDP) capabilities with Sepaton's virtual tape libraries (VTLs). (See Sepaton, Kashya Team.) The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is the first announced customer since the partnership.
• Also today, Sybase announced its Mirror Activator business continuity software is available on Oracle databases. (See Sun Switches Gears.) Mirror Activator works with replication software to copy only the log of data that has changed, requiring less bandwidth and speeding the process.
• Earlier this week, XOsoft launched WANSync 4.0, adding CDP support for Unix, support for 64-bit computing and Red Hat Linux, Blackberry Enterprise Server, and multi-server Internet Information Services (IIS). (See XOsoft Upgrades WANSync.) WANSync is host-based software that provides asynchronous replication on a WAN-linked replica server in order to transfer changes to application data as they occur.
• Revivio said this week it will integrate IBM's Tivoli CDP for Files into its Continuous Protection System (CPS) enterprise CDP product, letting Revivio customers gather data from remote offices to which they can then apply CDP. (See Revivio Integrates IBM Tivoli CDP.)
• StorageCraft Technology Corp. released ShadowProtect Server, which allows for bare-metal recovery of Windows systems. (See StorageCraft Protects Laptops.)
• BakBone Software launched a Backup Application Plug-in Module (APM) to add high availability for open source database MySQL. (See BakBone Adds MySQL Plug-In.)
• Service provider SANZ today revealed it received a $4 million business continuity contract for a company in the oil and gas industry. (See Sanz Plans $4M DR.)

On the customer front:

• Integrated Waste Management Department (IWMD) of Orange County, California, and steel product manufacturer Shiloh Industries joined the American Institute of Physics in revealing disaster recovery implementations. (See IWMD Picks Compellent and Shiloh Picks EqualLogic.)
• Ormond Beach, Florida-based Emergency Communications Network, Inc. installed XOSoft 4.0 to keep the servers up for its CodeRed and ThunderCall emergency phone services. Code Red sends phone messages alerting residents in geographic areas of emergencies such as missing children or health risks, and ThunderCall delivers early severe weather warnings to subscribers. Both programs require maintaining up-to-date databases and the ability to call thousands of phone numbers per hour.

  Senior developer Gary VanOpdorp says he switched from Double-Take to the new XOsoftHA version because of XOSoft's support for 64-bit Windows, better alerts, and more reliable performance.