Data Backup At The Desktop

Some users have such critical data that a first line of storage defense could be a good idea. Government regulations also are making the data on some desktops a lot more important--and much more costly if its lost.

Kano Technologies Corp. on Thursday unveiled SureVault desktop RAID storage for users with information such as financial and health-care data. The SureVault RAID Desktop Mirrored Solution automatically writes data simultaneously to two drives, creating a local mirror from the time a user creates anything.

When a disk drive fails, SureVault software will switch operations to the secondary drive while giving a visual and audible alert. A power user or storage administrator would next slide in a replacement Kano SureDrive. While the onboard system rebuilds the data on the new drive, the user can continue working from the secondary drive.

SureVault can store as much as 600 Gbytes of data, but comes in a form factor as light as 14 pounds. The whole SureVault desktop system is priced at $1,345.

Yankee Group industry analyst Jamie Gruener says SureVault would make sense for users such as brokers, but even in those companies he sees trouble. According to him, "It just increases how hard it is to manage all the desktops in a company."