EVault Sells Rapid RecoveryEVault Sells Rapid Recovery

In this real-time world, data recovery could hardly keep up with business demands. The richest financial institutions are used to paying extreme amounts of cash so they always can get at their information. Most companies can't afford to do that, but less-expensive options are becoming available.

Service firm turned backup-and-recovery vendor Evault Inc. has unveiled a server appliance that could be a low-cost backup-and-recovery option for any customer with a LAN. The combined hardware/software EVault Continuum Server can be snapped onto LANs. It comes in a box with only a power switch, and it supports software such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle 11i.

EVault includes data replication, mirroring, and snapshot copying within the hardware frame. Connecting storage systems to the Continuum Server gives customers dual mirroring without spending a lot of extra money. If storage crashes from a bad disk, for example, up-to-the minute information is on the EVault appliance.

The Continuum Server in versions supporting Windows, Solaris, Linux, and NetWare is priced at $11,428.

One industry analyst thinks many customers will be interested in the appliance approach to backup and recovery.

"The challenge is how easily the product will slip into existing processes," says Dennis Martin, an analyst at IT market research firm Evaluator Group. "But an appliance, with no agents required on production servers, is appealing to customers."