Start-up Focuses On Tracking Data Backups

Computerworld - Start-up software vendor Bocada Inc. has been reeling in some big user fish, such as Philip Morris Cos. and The Reader's Digest Association Inc., with an application designed to address one of the storage industry's dirtiest little secrets: the relatively high failure rate of data backups.

Bellevue, Wash.-based Bocada last week released an upgrade of its BackupReport Suite, which includes modules that support diagnostics, trending, audits and user chargebacks related to backup procedures. The software stores backup details in a Microsoft SQL Server database and offers storage administrators graphical overviews of their backup environments.

BackupReport 2.0 adds tape libraries and IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager software to the repertoire of storage systems it can track. The new release can pull backup information from tape devices to help IT managers "understand what tapes are still available for backup, what data is on them and what data can be deleted," said Bocada CEO Mark Silverman.

According to Bob Zimmerman, an analyst at Giga Information Group Inc., about 25% of all backups fail because of network complexity and interoperability issues. Storage management vendors such as IBM, Veritas Software Corp. and Legato Systems Inc. also offer backup tracking capabilities, Zimmerman said. But Bocada's product provides more functionality, he added.

Reader's Digest, a publishing company in Pleasantville, N.Y., faced a common problem: It couldn't find enough time to back up hundreds of servers to two direct-attached tape libraries or track how long the process took.

"We had servers in the 500GB range that took 28 hours to back up," said Adam Ladd, senior desktop analyst at Reader's Digest. "That's just a terrible system."

Earlier this year, Ladd negotiated with his tape library vendor, Storage Technology Corp., to develop customized software to address the problem. But, he said, he was concerned that it would be only a temporary fix and that his team wouldn't be able to manage it on its own. Louisville, Colo.-based StorageTek suggested that Reader's Digest instead try BackupReport.

Reader's Digest began piloting the product last spring. Ladd said the software provides a dashboard view of completed and failed backups and information about how long the procedures take to run. That information has helped IT administrators modify and improve scheduling, he said.

PRODUCT DETAILS

Backup Watcher Bocada's software tracks data backup procedures managed by tools from Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Legato and Veritas. Pricing for BackupReport Suite starts at $4,000 for a low-end installation with a single server and handful of clients.