FalconStor Builds On iSCSI Backup

FalconStor Software Inc. introduced Tuesday a new version of its iSCSI Storage Server software, built on Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003, and intended for disaster recovery, disk-based backup and rapid restore applications.

The iSCSI Storage Server sports an IP-based delta replication of an application host's mission-critical data, from a primary site to a remote site over IP in a peer-to-peer or many-to-one configuration, based on policy. The iSCSI Storage Server also protects host-based systems and user workstations via replication of local files and directories, as well as mirroring an entire local disk to an iSCSI server-managed disk for automated off-site data storage backup and disaster recovery, FalconStor said.

The new software also permits multi-pathing for Fibre Channel-attached storage, which creates parallel, active storage paths that reroute traffic to a redundant storage path without interruption, in the event of a storage network problem.

A new consistency group feature allows virtual drives to be grouped for snapshot synchronization purposes. Snapshots for all resources in a group are taken at the same point-in-time for the snapshot, replication, and backup services. This feature, working in conjunction with database-aware Snapshot Agents, ensures transactional integrity for database files that reside on multiple file systems for data recovery purposes, according to the vendor.

FalconStor also said that iSCSI disks provisioned to application hosts use a "zero-impact backup" (ZIB) model, which significantly reduces the backup window and the administrative overhead.

The new software also supports disk-to-disk (D2D) options in a variety of third-party backup software with its capacity on demand technology, which optimizes storage usage and capacity based on policy by compressing stale data, and expanding virtual disks as needed.

The iSCSI Storage Server is available now; pricing starts at less than $2,000; FalconStor noted that appliances running iSCSI Storage Server start at approximately $6,000.