Symantec Corp has updated its PureDisk remote office backup system to support tape backup and Exchange and SQL data.
The support for tape backup sees PureDisk integrated with Symantec’s NetBackup backup management software, and will be followed by further integration of PureDisk’s de-duplication technology into NetBackup, the company said.
Launched this time last year, PureDisk is intended to solve the problem of backing up data at remote offices, by automating the process of first de-duplicating the data at those remote locations, and then sending it over a link to a data center.
But for technical reasons, until now the data has remained on disk after it has arrived at the data centers. Although the data has been de-duplicated and so takes up less space than it might do otherwise, it is still consuming expensive disk space.
PureDisk version 6.1 now fixes that problem and allows the data to be exported to tape. It is not clear how many customers were put off by this previous inability. Analysts last year said that PureDisk was attracting customers, but Symantec last week refused to discuss sales figures.
The company said that the update is simply aimed at customers who are faced with requirements to retain for several years, and so definitely want to export data to tape.
Symantec said that it will unveil further integration of de-duplication with NetBackup later this year.
Until now PureDisk has only been able to handle file data. Symantec said it has chosen to add support for Microsoft Exchange emails and SQL Server databases because these are the most commonly found applications at remote offices that are generating non file-level data.
Previously PureDisk provided no means of easily re-composing de-constructed, de-duplicated data at the data center, or allowing tape management or backup applications to handle the backup, and so log the backup in their media or tape cartridge catalogs.
PureDisk version 6.1 plugs both of those functional gaps. Symantec stressed that the export to tape is of reconstructed, non de-de-duplicated, and is performed much more quickly than a simple NFS file copy – which is what users of other backup management applications such as EMC Corp’s NetWorker or IBM Corp’s Tivoli Storage Manager will be restricted to.
