Viable Ways To RecoverViable Ways To Recover

Backup and recovery are automatic to any company that needs to be up and running all the time. And most must be able to recover information quickly if anything goes wrong. Amid these requirements, companies have multiple choices with which they could recover information on time. On the software side, at least six viable vendors compete for market share. And on the hardware side, an upstart is challenging leading vendors such as ADIC, EMC, and Quantum.

Overland Storage Inc. on Wednesday will unveil its REO 4000, a backup and recovery appliance that's designed to provide rapid restores after delivering the data during short backup window times. The appliance can transfer data at a rate of 300 Gbytes per hour, stores data on low-cost ATA hard disks, and supports both iSCSI/Ethernet and Fibre Channel network connections. Overland's own software inside will work with backup and recovery software from any important vendor.

The support for Ethernet and Fibre Channel is what sets REO 4000 apart from other backup and recovery appliances, says analyst Tony Asaro of the Enterprise Storage Group. "Many customers don't want to install Fibre Channel just for backup and recovery," he says. He also points out a vast pricing advantage. The REO 4000 is priced at $13,500 with 2 terabytes of capacity, Asaro says; a comparable Clariion appliance from EMC is priced at $109,000 and offers just 700 Gbytes of capacity.