CommVault adds de-duplication to data management software

Computerworld - CommVault Systems Inc. today announced a new version of its flagship data management software, Simpana, which now includes block-level data de-duplication, mobile and remote office recovery management tools, backup for virtual machines, and a content search engine for compliance.

Zahid Ilkal, CommVault's product manager, noted that Simpana 8's predecessor had only file-level de-duplication. The new version offers block-level compression that runs on a media server and begins with a simple compression algorithm and completes with full de-duplication on secondary disk-storage subsystems. It then archives the backup data to tape.

Initial compression rates run as high as 50%, with final de-duplication on the secondary disk-storage arrays achieving rates as high as 90%. "And it performs de-duplication across the enterprise, based on a one policy," Ilkal said. As data is de-duplicated, a searchable index is created on the media server that can later be used to recover data for regulatory compliance or civil litigation.

Simpana's new recovery management tool works not only on data center clients but on remote office desktops as well as mobile devices by using a light agent. That agent performs an initial full backup of the device and then replicates any incremental data changes back to main data center servers.

"Today's economic environment is challenging enterprises to do more with less," N. Robert Hammer, CommVault's chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement. "Simpana 8 simplifies the way businesses store and manage rapidly growing amounts of data and can help customers ensure compliance, gain operational efficiencies and dramatically reduce their data management and related storage expenses by up to 40%."

Ilkal said Simpana 8 also adds snapshot capability that can potentially eliminate daily backup windows. SnapBackup Enabler is qualified to operate with both EMC and NetApp storage systems for point-in-time data recovery. For example, systems administrators can create an Exchange mail recovery box on an EMC primary storage system, allowing Simpana 8 to recover from disk an individual user's mailbox -- down to an individual e-mail.

Simpana 8 also includes virtual server management for backup and recovery, including incremental file-level backup. The feature also includes autodiscovery of virtual machines, Ilkal said.

Data recovery options range from single files to virtual disks to an entire virtual machine. The software also restores from virtual systems to physical servers or across virtual platforms, such as recovering a VMware image directly to a Microsoft Hyper-V system.

Simpana's new Content Director tool allows administrators to perform keyword searches for electronic discovery functions such as creating legal holds. The tool allows single policies to be set across an enterprise in order to tag keywords for records management.

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