Features - Storage Innovations:

KASHYA UNVEILS KBX4000 DATA REPLICATION APPLIANCE

Kashya, an emerging leader in high-performance, cost-effective data protection solutions, unveiled the KBX4000, a breakthrough data protection appliance that dramatically lowers the TCO of enterprise storage replication by applying a combination of unique technologies to eliminate the distance, cost, performance and management limitations of traditional data protection products.

The KBX4000 is an advanced enterprise-class disaster recovery data replication solution built around Kashya's unique data replication technology that delivers superior data protection at a fraction of the total cost of existing solutions. Kashya's architecture is based on the intelligent Kashya Data Protection Appliance that connects to the SAN and IP infrastructure, providing bi-directional data replication across any distance for heterogeneous storage and server environments.

According to Carl Greiner, senior vice president of META Group, "Enterprises wish to leverage existing infrastructure investments while maintaining a very high level of data protection. Solutions, such as Kashya's, with communications optimization technology coupled with the ability to support heterogeneous (and lower cost) storage at both the primary and secondary site, will benefit organizations seeking higher ROI from their data replication solutions."

"There is little doubt that cost-effective data protection is the primary challenge facing enterprise IT managers. At the same time they have to deal with dual constraints of tighter IT budgets and an ever-increasing volume of data at risk that have combined to overwhelm conventional models of data protection," said Michael Lewin, CEO and co-Founder of Kashya. "Kashya has adopted a radical new approach to solving the problem that addresses the cost and distance performance degradation issues inherent in existing solutions by creating a more intelligent solution that also lets the user define specific levels of data protection."

The Kashya KBX4000 is an end-to-end solution for enterprise data replication that leverages advanced algorithms to intelligently manage data and bandwidth to deliver guaranteed consistent replicas of business-critical data in the event of any possible failure or disaster, even when that data spans multiple heterogeneous storage and servers. The guaranteed replication functionality is complemented by a snapshot history that allows convenient rollback to any point in time, enabling quick recovery of critical data. The KBX4000 supports multiple transactional-consistent snapshots at the remote site, allowing reliable recovery in database environments. Frequent, small-aperture snapshots (seconds apart) are utilized to minimize the risk of data loss due to data corruption.

The Kashya appliance monitors SAN and WAN activity continuously, using real-time information to enable the system to dynamically adapt its replication mode based on SAN and WAN conditions and the application workload to achieve the stated business objectives for each application. This greatly simplifies data and disaster recovery management for complex and heterogeneous environments. The unique Kashya replication architecture shatters today's distance/latency limitations, and enables completely up-to-date protection from regional disasters with no impact on application performance.

According to Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst of The Taneja Group, "We are entering a new era in data protection over long distances. For years the customer has been looking for a way to non-disruptively transfer data over long distances without impacting application performance and without being concerned with data consistency. Kashya is not only delivering on this promise but has added additional features such as multiple replication policies and the ability to assign value to data via simple policy statements. This is very impressive indeed."

A key element of the Kashya design is the recognition that all enterprise data is not of equal value and different data sets require different levels of data protection and replication frequency. The built-in flexibility of the KBX4000 offers a full spectrum of replication modes from synchronous, to asynchronous, to small aperture-snapshot, to point-in-time. Users can easily define different levels of replication based on application requirements and business objectives. Once the parameters are set, the replication process is managed automatically.

The Kashya KBX4000 employs intelligent technologies that deliver unprecedented reduction in bandwidth requirements, enabling the system to provide the best possible level of protection for the available bandwidth, while dramatically reducing WAN costs, particularly over long distances. Data reduction is achieved through application-aware and storage-aware algorithmic techniques that conserve bandwidth to the extent not possible with traditional compression technologies.

In addition to dramatically lowering bandwidth costs for out-of-region replication, Kashya delivers a broad range of other cost reductions, including eliminating the need for expensive edge connect and protocol converter devices; the ability to use existing data centers as secondary sites, thereby reducing associated expenses of creating a new remote replication site; reduced software, hardware and operational costs; and significant reductions in management and implementation expenses based on the ease of use of the Kashya appliance. Additionally, storage systems at the primary and secondary sites do not have to be the same, offering the flexibility to deploy lower-cost storage or to leverage existing storage and minimize storage costs.

The Kashya KBX4000 data replication appliance is available in October, with software prices starting at $10,000 per site. Kashya provides a global 24x7x365 call center and same-day onsite service for hardware.