Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based Unitrends, which has been producing backup software since its inception in 1989, introduced its Rapid Recovery System (RRS) technology based on its existing Data Protection Units arrays. The 2U (3.5-in.-high) arrays incorporate both business continuity and disaster recovery functions in a box that scales from 400GB to 100TB and has a starting price under US$5,000.

The RRSs arrive preconfigured with the company's Bare Metal Plus software, which can perform file-level backup and recovery as well as restore a full operating system -- complete with passwords and permissions for up to 100 servers, according to Unitrends' CEO, Sterling Wharton. The system works by burning a DVD of the applications and operating system that can then be loaded into a new server. The new functionality includes what Unitrends calls continuous system protection, or the ability to make multiple point-in-time copies of data, applications and operating systems throughout the day and restore from those preset points in time. Sterling said snapshots of the data can be scheduled to occur seconds or minutes apart.

Kevin Hughes, a network engineer at Sharonview Federal Credit Union in Fort Mill, N.C., installed two RRSs at the beginning of November and has been able to cut in half a backup window that had grown to more than 24 hours for 25 servers. Hughes had been backing up his servers using Veritas Backup Exec software directly to a tape library from Advanced Digital Information Corp.

Installing the RRS array, which acts as a near-line storage device between Sharonview's servers and its tape library, took less than a day and was relatively simple to do, Hughes said. One RRS was installed at the credit union's main data center and another at a disaster recovery site in the same metropolitan area. Hughes said he is replicating data synchronously between the two devices.