Asigra Unveils Inductry's First Backup
Lifecycle Management (BLM) Software Suite
Sophisticated Technology to Ensure Regulatory
Compliance Across Multi-Site Enterprises While Maximizing Storage
Hardware Utilization
Toronto – October 25, 2004 – Asigra, the technology specialists in distributed backup and recovery software for network computing, today announced Asigra BLM* and Televaulting ILM-aware*, the only backup and recovery software package to deliver ILM capabilities across multiple corporate sites. With these new innovations, Asigra significantly reduces the cost and complexity of data storage by automatically moving data to the most appropriate storage media based on pre-determined policies of accessibility, security and long-term storage.
It is estimated that the cost of managing data throughout its lifecycle continues to grow 20 to 30 percent each year, as amounts of data and regulatory retention times increase. Asigra BLM and ILM-aware help minimize hardware, administration and real estate costs traditionally associated with information management while increasing an organization’s return on its data storage
investment.
Asigra BLM
Asigra BLM is the company’s next-generation distributed
backup and recovery software package that distinguishes different
levels of protected data: current critical data, which is stored
on-line for fast recovery; and archivable data that may be needed
at a later time but is not likely to be accessed in the near future.
The main benefits to this implementation is the ability to retrieve
archived information quickly if needed, and excellent cost savings
realized by allowing only current data to be stored on-line, while
archived data resides on low-cost disk, tape or optical media.
At the heart of Asigra’s BLM is the BLM Archiver, which
manages archiving of the Asigra Televaulting DS-System data –
the information at one or more corporate locations selected by
the user for protection. The BLM Archiver is controlled and accessed
through a dedicated Java-based GUI interface and can manage data
from one or more DS-System locations and any number of relevant
DS-Clients connected to it.
The BLM Archiver accepts archive requests from the DS-System and
accumulates archive data into a "staging buffer." The
accumulated archive data is then consolidated into a single BLM
Archive for long-term disk or tape storage. Both the staged and
the consolidated data are indexed by the BLM Archiver, allowing
for easy searching through the archived content. On user request,
the BLM Archiver can generate restorable BLM Archive Images containing
required data. Once generated, data contained in a BLM Archive
Image can be restored using the Asigra Televaulting DS-Client.
"Asigra BLM manages the lifecycle of backup data from when
it is created, while it is stored on various tiers of media, through
to the end of its life when it is intentionally deleted,"
said Eran Farajun, Executive Vice President of Asigra. "Asigra
takes the view that current ILM solutions focus on the management
of primary data files, but do not adequately address the management
of secondary (backup) data. Asigra BLM meets that requirement
for a total product."
In addition to realizing reduced data equipment and management
costs, Asigra BLM improves speed and reduces storage size as it
will not duplicate data as it accumulates into the staging buffer
as a result of delta blocking and common file elimination. Only
new or different files will be copied into the staging buffer
to create full archive copies, a departure from other backup schemes
that duplicate almost all files from a previous backup version.
Asigra Televaulting ILM-aware
The company’s new Asigra Televaulting ILM-aware was developed
to integrate easily in customer environments already using third-party
Information Lifecycle Management or Hierarchical Storage Management
software. Televaulting ILM-aware allows customers to lower the
cost of protecting their data with DS-System (onsite or offsite)
and avoid data duplication. Televaulting ILM-aware allows the
automated movement of data, not touched for a specific period
of time or of a certain file type, from high-cost, high-performance
online disk systems to lower-cost, lower-performance storage such
as a tape library. Alternatively, it also allows the complete
removal of ILM’ed data from the on-line DS-System storage,
avoiding having ILM’ed data duplicated in both the ILM storage and DS-System on-line storage.
Asigra BLM and ILM-aware are agentless multi-site backup/recovery
software packages that combine utility service provisioning with
a disk-based, WAN-optimized architecture to shatter the limitations
of traditional distributed backup software. Asigra provides grid-based
performance and capacity scaling for virtually unlimited data
growth, allowing the software to support any backup load. Asigra
eliminates many storage pain points through technology that is
designed for enterprise-wide centralization, built from the ground
up to perform on a global level. It is tested and certified compatible
by leading infrastructure providers, not to take the place of
data center backup software, but complement it for remote sites.
Business benefits that differentiate Asigra’s offering from
other backup solutions include true regulatory compliance, reduction
in worldwide IT management expenditures, compounded reduction
of hardware/software capital and enterprise-wide license costs,
a pay-as-you-grow pricing model and the highest level of assurance
that all company data is protected.
Pricing and Availability
Asigra BLM has a starting price of $24,000. Televaulting ILM-aware
is available immediately, free of charge (built into Asigra Televaulting
backup software).
About Asigra
Founded in 1986, Asigra is the specialist in distributed data
backup and recovery solutions for network computing. With Asigra's
Televaulting software, enterprises can reliably protect mission-critical
information across all their geographically dispersed "data
islands," whether they reside on servers, desktops or laptops.
The privately held company is based in Toronto, Canada. For more
information, contact Asigra at 416-736-8111 ext. 101 or visit
the company’s website at www.asigra.com.
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