Quantum Enhances DXi7500 D2D System

Quantum Corp. announced a significant feature release for its DXi7500 disk backup and remote replication systems, delivering a 22 percent increase in usable capacity and a set of software enhancements that provides new functionality for multi-site, multi-tier operations. These enhancements offer more replication options for improved data protection and additional choices for direct tape creation from disk, as well as enabling more effective centralized deduplication.

The new release increases the usable disk capacity of Quantum’s DXi7500 product line across both the midrange DXi7500 Express and the DXi7500 Enterprise models. The largest model now offers 220 TB of usable capacity — providing petabytes of deduplicated backup capacity — while the DXi7500 Express model still delivers cost-effective protection for sites with as little as 3 TB of primary data. The additional capacity, provided by an upgrade from 750 GB to 1 TB disk drives, is also accompanied by an upgrade to double-parity RAID 6 technology to increase overall data protection.

Improved Replication Expands Choices
in Multi-site Protection
Software enhancements in the DXi7500 include more granular replication and synchronization of data, providing replication at the cartridge or file/directory level and automatically making data available immediately at the target for restores. This approach enables administrators to restore from just-completed file backups and offers improved scheduling and access control, with uninterrupted access to data during replication. Increased performance and more detailed reporting also provide more robust replication for multi-site, multi-tier backup environments.

Symantec NetBackup OpenStorage API Support
Provides Application-aware Replication
The enhanced DXi7500 software integration with the Symantec OpenStorage API allows customers using Veritas NetBackup to lower the infrastructure costs associated with backup, disaster recovery and replication. This solution provides customers with an automated replication process that increases control and visibility of data across multiple locations, improving storage utilization and reducing management overhead. The Quantum DXi7500 OpenStorage solution is in the process of being qualified for use with NetBackup 6.5.3 on Linux, Solaris and Windows operating systems.

"The Quantum OpenStorage solution for NetBackup provides a very powerful, yet flexible solution for customers focused on deploying new backup architectures or disaster recovery plans," said Matt Kixmoeller, vice president, Symantec Data Protection Group. "Most importantly, the OpenStorage API allows our joint customers to deploy advanced Quantum hardware fully managed by and integrated with NetBackup, dramatically improving their data protection while simplifying the management process."

Optimized Support for Oracle Database Backup
Improved DXi7500 software filters enhance support for Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN), Oracle’s native database backup utility, delivering a 4x increase in deduplication ratios. When used with selected media management applications, the new RMAN filter provides optimized deduplication results with the DXi7500.

Improved Tape Creation
Quantum has also expanded the range of options it offers for tape creation with the DXi7500, further advancing the integration of tape and disk for an end-to-end backup infrastructure. In addition to its existing support for Symantec NetBackup, the DXi7500 now provides application-aware tape creation support through EMC NetWorker 7.5, facilitating the direct transfer of data from the DXi7500 to tape while under the application’s control. Using this capability, EMC NetWorker can now track multiple copies of the same dataset on both disk and tape, with unique data expiration policies. For backup applications without application-aware tape capabilities, Quantum’s Shadow Tape Creation has been updated to enable direct tape creation from the DXi7500 to a tape library in conjunction with a wide variety of popular backup applications.

"The combination of EMC NetWorker and the DXi7500 gives joint customers a solid data protection solution, helping them back up to the most appropriate target depending on the recovery time objective and recovery point objective of that data," said Prashant Dholakia, EMC vice president of storage software engineering. "As new data protection requirements put additional stress on the data center, EMC is at the forefront of helping customers embrace new technologies while continuing to invest in their current infrastructures."

Additional new features for the DXi7500 include a command line interface — providing flexible, automated operation of multiple functions and compatibility with replication operations — and other functions available via a graphical user interface. Functional enhancements to network and port management enable customers to separate backup, replication and management tasks on individual ports for added data security.

"Following our introduction of the DXi7500 Express for the midrange market, this update to the DXi7500 platform is part of Quantum’s strategy to leverage data deduplication as a foundation for multi-site, multi-tier data protection," said Janae Lee, vice president of marketing at Quantum. "Today’s announced enhancements combine for expanded flexibility and greater integration of deduplication with other components of the backup infrastructure."

The DXi7500 is available today with an MSRP starting at $98,250.