He said the disk-to-disk replication knocked two hours off his nightly backups and cut the time needed for data restorations from two hours with tape to 45 minutes with disk. Online Backups

Christopher Varner, chief technology officer at DDJ Capital Management LLC in Wellesley, Mass., said he's planning a move away from tape backup to an online data backup and recovery scheme from EVault Inc. in Emeryville, Calif., and SunGard Data Systems Inc. in Wayne, Pa.

DDJ Capital plans to install a backup storage server on its LAN running EVault software for regular backups to restore deleted files locally. It also plans to have a duplicate backup server replicate data over the Internet to a SunGard data center that also runs EVault.

"This enhances our disaster recovery capabilities and also makes backups easier for my staff," Varner said. "No more taking tapes home every night or dealing with the hassle of rotating our tape library in the bank safe-deposit box."

The local vault will be used as necessary to restore deleted files, and the off-site backup will be used for disaster recovery, Varner said.