ShadowProtect gains a headstart
StorageCraft has announced the launch of the latest versions of the company’s disk-based backup and disaster recovery software ShadowProtect 4.1 and ImageManager/ImageManager Enterprise 4.1.
They introduce compatibility with VMWare ESX, ESXi and VirtualBox 4.0.2 and 4.0.4 environments.
ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise's HeadStart Restore technology feature is now compatible with VMWare ESX and VMWare ESXi, providing realtime business continuity and/or realtime migration for servers, applications, databases and data.
HeadStart Restore enables an organisation to pre-stage an automated physical or virtual system/server/database recovery to a VMware or Hyper V virtual machine a few minutes instead of hours or days.
Gavin Matthews, Chief Information Officer of Seccom Global, a StorageCraft partner in Australia, said: “HeadStart Restore and the inbuilt replication technology in ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise enable us to deliver truly enterprise offsite, remote server recovery through our SecureDR service, as an affordable, reliable and robust cloud-based disaster recovery solution to our customers and partners.”
Instead of waiting for a disaster before starting a traditional lengthy server restore process, ShadowProtect HeadStart Restore starts the recovery process in the background and in real-time moves the operating system, data and database to the target virtual VMware or Hyper-V system while the systems are healthy and operational.
StorageCraft vice president, Asia Pacific, Greg Wyman, said: “Virtualisation has changed fundamentally the way companies host and provision servers. A key challenge for many companies is how to perform physical to virtual migrations without impacting users or the business. Quite simply, how do you migrate a database or server that has a large - for example a 1+ Terabyte of data / database to a virtual or even worse, to a new (totally different hardware) physical server?
“With traditional technologies, the server needs to be downed and put offline (all users logged off), whilst the data and/or database is migrated which is very disruptive to the business. Compare that to being able to in Real-Time migrate the Operating System, the database and data and complete the migration to VMware, Hyper-V or any other physical server in as little as three minutes of downtime to the users during the actual cutover process. That makes migrations a seamless and painless exercise that can be conducted during business hours without disturbing users and business practices.”
HeadStart Restore pricing starts at $A351 (ex GST).
VirtualBoot Real-Time Disaster Recovery technology now supports Oracle’s VirtualBox 4.0.2 and 4.0.4. VirtualBoot technology allows any ShadowProtect backup to be booted “near instantly’ as a virtual machine in a matter of just a few minutes, no matter how large original server.
Greg Wyman said: “Our customers tell us that VirtualBoot is a life saver. When a server crashes, the ability to get it into full production in a matter of just a few minutes instead of hours or days is the difference between keeping and losing customers. Since we introduced VirtualBoot almost 12 months ago, our growth has been exponential – we have had to triple our Australian based order processing team.”
The 4.1 upgrades are available as a free upgrade for Version 4 license holders. Users of ShadowProtect 3.x and 2.x who have a valid maintenance contract may obtain an upgrade for free. Users without a maintenance contract are eligible to purchase an upgrade.