A new network mirroring software solution, said by its manufacturer to provide the first continuous data protection for Sun Solaris systems, has been introduced by Qualix Group, Inc. The product, Qualix DataStar, reduces potential data loss, allows data recovery in minutes and speeds the resumption of business operations in the event of a system failure or disaster.

"Many organizations rely on tape backup for disaster recovery, and that means they risk losing hours of data in the event of a system failure or disaster, and also stand to waste precious hours reloading data from the backup tape," said Qualix executive vice president Jean Kovacs. "Our solution allows quicker recovery by providing a readily available source of duplicated data that is current to within seconds of the moment of failure."
The product's comprehensive protection offers a more cost-effective alternative to storage hardware vendor solutions, which often require additional hardware at each end or expensive network connections as well as imposing distance limitations between the source and target systems. The new software permits mirroring between systems regardless of distance utilizing existing networks.

Saves time in backup and data migration
In addition to disaster recovery, Qualix DataStar's ability to maintain up-to-date copies of disk data offsite reduces system downtime needed for backups and data migration.
For backup use, the product reduces downtime by making it possible to perform offsite backups while keeping the production computer system available. For organizations moving to a new location or upgrading an existing server, the product minimizes downtime by allowing data to be stored and continuously updated offsite until it is time for a flash cutover.

Broad compatibility
Qualix DataStar supports network mirroring from one source system to one target system, from one source to multiple targets or from multiple sources to a single target. It is compatible with database, disk, volume manager, file system and networking products from any vendor on the source and target systems. It also supports mixed products on the same system. It operates with Ethernet, token-ring, FDDI, ATM or other networks that support TCP/IP.
The product is now available on Sun Solaris 2.4 and later. Support for Hewlett Packard's HP-UX and IBM's AIX/6000 are planned for later releases.
Qualix Group Inc. has more than 15,000 installations providing reliability software for UNIX and Windows NT applications and servers in distributed computing environments. Headquartered in San Mateo, CA, USA, with distribution across more than 30 countries, the company is now expanding its distribution networks in France and Germany.
Qualix and Qualix DataStar are trademarks of Qualix Group Inc. All other company and/or product names are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective companies.


Qualix DataStar Technical Information:
Utilizing an asynchronous replication architecture, the software captures I/O changes in real time as changes occur on the primary server. It continuously and automatically sends changes across the network to target servers that can be located at any distance.
Data is always replicated in sequence, ensuring the integrity of the mirrored data. Mirroring is performed at the disk partition level, ensuring the availability of user files and system files as well as databases. Open architecture allows the product to be used with any storage device, file system and volume manager.
To maximize the network bandwidth available during peak usage times, the software permits administrators to configure the replication speed by the runtime status of the system and the time of day. Other management features include both a command line utility and a graphical interface that display statistical information on mirroring status in text and graph form, respectively, permitting real-time and snapshot monitoring of system functions.

For more information, contact:
Qualix Group, Inc.
1900 South Norfolk St., Suite 224
San Mateo, California 94403, USA
Tel +415 572-0200
Fax +415 572-1300
e-mail rogerh@qualix.com or wendyc@qualix.com
http://www.qualix.com