IBM’s Tivoli Storage technology has
gotten more relevant for managed service providers and midmarket customers.
That’s because IBM’s Tivoli Storage now
offers functionality that enables data protection and recovery of data in
remote locations and smaller locations in the form of FastBack. IBM
acquired the technology last year when it bought FilesX, a company that offered
continuous data protection and nearly instant data and application recovery
software for enterprises and remote offices.
“Tivoli was good at providing that
kind of protection for AIX and mainframes,” says Richard Vining, product
marketing manager for Tivoli Storage. “FilesX was very good at protecting
Windows servers.”
IBM first released the FastBack technology a
year ago and since then has been offering it through its reseller channel
worldwide. And some solution providers have picked up the technology as a way
to turn around and offer a managed service to end customers.
CWPS is doing just that. The Washington D.C.-area service provider is using the
technology to automate protection and recovery of its clients’ data.
“The real value here with FastBack is that it provides this near instant
recovery,” says Vining. “Customers see their data exploding, and if they lose
any of it, it’s devastating. There are no paper backups anymore, and the amount
of time it takes to recovery really has an impact on their business.”
But with the Tivoli FastBack technology, recovery is instant, says Vining, who
worked with FilesX before IBM acquired the
company in April 2008. “Push a button and the data is back. That’s a very
powerful solution for customers.”
In addition to MSPs, Vining says the FastBack technology is also targeted at
midmarket customers. It offers an automated process and continuous protection.
“If you do backups once a night, you can have an entire day’s worth of data at
risk,” says Vining.
Tivoli FastBack was created with Windows server in mind, but Vining says IBM
also has a version of the technology for Linux on the road map.