UPDATE - CA to use XOsoft for next gen data recovery

12.07.2006
As part of its plans to develop a next-generation data recovery product to replace ARCServe, CA Inc. announced this week that it has acquired privately-held XOSoft Inc. for its contniuous data protection technology.

XOsoft, in Waltham, Mass., makes software for data recovery and the synchronization and replication of computer documents and applications. Over the next couple of years, its applications will be integrated into CA's next-generation application Recovery Manager, which CA calls a recovery management application that can be governed by policies to determine the type of data a use wants restored, said Bob Davis, general manager of storage for CA, in Islandia, N.Y.

XOsoft's existing data recovery product, WANSync High Availability, will likely see some integration with CA's technology as early as September, said Leonid Shtilman, CEO of XOsoft. Until Recovery Manager comes out, however, the two products will continue to be sold as peers, Davis said.

CA chose to enter the continuous data protection space because it decided "backup isn't enough," Davis said.

Davis said his company chose XOsoft because it believed it is the clear leader in the market and because it has exhibited 25 percent to 30 percent growth per quarter for the past three years, he said. CA also considered LiveVault, which was purchased by Iron Mountain Inc. in December, 2005, for US$50 million. CA did not consider Revivio, which has announced agreements with IBM and QLogic Corp. in Aliso Viejo, Calif., because it is a hardware product, Davis said.

CA said it has not yet determined what effect this will have on XOsoft's current partnership agreements with BMC Software Inc., announced last January. As recently as April, XOsoft was touting its BMC relationship and saying WANSync would be integrated into BMC's SQL BackTrack recovery module.