Backup Express

Syncsort's Backup Express (BEX) provides for the Enterprise a client/server backup technology that can be leveraged for both single file restores or disaster recovery of entire machines (I.E., O/S, settings, etc.).

At the core of the product's capabilities is the vendor's Advanced Recovery client technology, which leverages block-level (image-based) backups that operate directly at the disk level (bypassing the file system). These backups are incremental in nature; the client platform examines the data blocks on the disks and transfers to storage only those that have changed since the last snapshot. De-duplication is applied at the client side of the data stream, not the storage side. The vendor states that the ability to interrogate the blocks directly results in improved performance and thus bills the platform as a "Near-CDP" application. It is these snapshot-based backups that are then used as the core data collections for all of the recovery features provided by the platform; i.e., whether restoring a single file or a full bare-metal restore the application leverages the same snapshot-based data backup repository.

The delta blocks are sent to/stored by an Advanced Recovery server (Advanced Server), which then has the ability to create virtual volume images from the stored snapshots.

Among the product's key features as listed by the vendor are:

- Bare Metal Recovery: A separate bootable CD that can be loaded into a machine to facilitate disaster-recovery (bare-metal) restores. The CD provides the necessary interface to connect to the storage/snapshot repository and recovery a full system from a previous point in time.

- Instant Availability (for Windows/Solaris SPARC), or the ability to store and assemble the backed-up data as virtual volumes that can be directly accessed when necessary (I.E., as local read/write drives) by client machines via iSCSI target technology. The vendor notes that such virtual volumes can be operational in as little as one minute, and include support for Exchange, SQL Server, and Oracle volumes.

- Archive: Or disk-to-disk-to-tape, provides backup to tape features for the Advanced Recovery Server. The tape backups can then be automatically restored as needed when data is requested.

- Instant Virtualiization: A new feature in the latest release that enables the "near-instant" recovery for virtual machines without requiring data transfers. Instant Virtualization combines Bare Metal Recovery with the instant availability feature; enabling access from virtual machines to an entire server image.

Other new features in the latest BEX release include support for Exchange single mailbox and message recoveries, a unified management console for the administration of all BEX functions, virtual machine reporting (performance, storage allocation, usage, free space), replication support (replicate snapshots from one server to another), and tape migration features (duplication of unlike tapes, migration of VTL to physical tape).

Backup Express is available now; contact the vendor for further information.