The new version now allows users to create and recover multiple point-in-time copies of both file systems and Microsoft Exchange 2003 data.In an effort to ensure that its data-protection product doesnt get lost in the upcoming frenzy of Microsofts new DPM (Data Protection Manager), EMC has announced an upgrade to its popular RepliStor file replication software.
RepliStor, first introduced by Legato, provides asynchronous, real-time replication of files, directories and registries in the Windows 2000, 2003, XP and Storage Server environments. The newest version, RepliStor 6.1, supports Microsoft VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service) as well as new Microsoft Exchange protection and recovery capabilities and better integration with EMC Corp. backup and recovery solutions.
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RepliStor 6.1 now supports Microsoft Corp.s VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service), allowing users to create and recover multiple point-in-time copies of both file systems and Microsoft Exchange 2003 data. Support for Exchange 2003 was particularly important because of the increasing importance of email in the environment, said Rob Emsley, product marketing director for the Hopkinton, Mass., company.
"It allows you to instruct an application that youre about to do something with the data the application is using and tell the application to put that data into a consistent state," he said.
RepliStor 6.1 also integrates more seamlessly with EMC Dantz Retrospect and EMC Legato NetWorker, a move intended to help small companies or larger organizations with remote offices improve data protection and reign in costs.
"The belief that our customers can get all of their data protection needs served by on-disk recovery is not really possible for quite some time, so the ability to make use of either NetWorker or Retrospect to provide backup-to-tape support or additional backup-to-disk integration is critical," Emsley said.
Although these upgrades are quite useful to existing and potential RepliStor users on their own merits, EMCs likely motivation to introducing these upgrades now was to ensure that RepliStor can continue to compete not only with Microsofts Data Protection Manager, which has many of the same capabilities, but with Veritas CDP (Continuous Data Protection) product, Backup Exec 10D, an upgrade to the Mountain View, Calif., companys popular Backup Exec software.
"When a big incumbent like Microsoft gets into the data protection game with a generally available product, the vendors that have had solutions in that space for a number of years are throwing their hats in the ring," said Brian Babineau, an analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group of Milford, Mass. "Most of the data protection and backup software companies are announcing something next week that has Microsoft integration capabilities."
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Although EMC, Veritas and others will feel compelled to add Microsoft integration capabilities to their products as quickly as possible, Babineau said EMC and Veritas already have differentiated their products from Microsofts.
"They can both integrate with applications like Exchange and SQL Server, where Microsoft, in its first version of DPM, doesnt do that," he said. "Thats where RepliStor will have to compete head-on with Veritas."
RepliStor will continue to evolve, Emsley said, and new features might be built around end-user self-service recovery or even integrating the emerging IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) protocol, which will provide enough IP addresses for millions of people and computer devices to have their own unique addresses. As a company, EMC also plans to follow many of its competitors, entering the CDP market, Emsley said.
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