CommVault Revamps Galaxy Storage Software

Trying to anticipate enterprise storage management needs ahead of the end-user demand, CommVault Systems Inc. will announce a new version of its flagship software early next month, CEO Bob Hammer said today.

The software, Galaxy 3.7, is "the last phase. Its the last major release of our data protection strategy," Hammer said.

The new features list in Version 3.7 is extensive. Several versions of Unix are supported, including those from Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., along with Microsoft Corp.s forthcoming Windows XP. Data restoration of public folders in Microsofts Exchange 2000 Server is also supported, along with Windows 2000s Active Directory and SQL Server 2000.

Also new is cluster support; off-site disaster recovery from tape, disk, and optical media; and support for EMC Corp.s Celerra and Fastrax products. Network-based backup is new as well, plus automated policies and scheduling, tape exports, and drive cleaning, company officials said.

Version 3.7 will ship "no later than the first of November," Hammer said. It will cost about $1,500 per server for a low-end implementation, increasing with scale. Users then choose application agents, costing anywhere from $500 to $10,000 each, from the current catalog of about 70 agents, he said.

Despite the current phases ending, Hammer said, a new one will begin next year, with software releases in the first and third quarters. In those versions, he said, data backup will become more like simple archiving, with the software emphasis shifting to image-to-applications indexing and hybrid SAN/NAS management.