HP digs data retrieval

Hewlett-Packard will bundle AppStor, the data archival and retrieval software it acquired last year from Persist Technologies, with its own hardware to deliver a content-addressed storage solution that will compete with offerings from Network Appliance, EMC, and newcomer Permabit.

The new product will consist of HP servers and storage combined with AppStor, according to Calvin Zito, of the strategic marketing for the ILM (information lifecycle management) group at HP. The new, yet-to-be named HP solution will hit the market later this year, aiming to distinguish itself from EMC’s similar Centera product.

“Unlike Centera, our product will come with an integrated search function,” said Zito. “We’ll be able to get data out of the system from any application, not just the one that created the data.”

The new HP system is geared toward data retrieval, which is the opposite of EMC’s Centera’s focus on data archiving, Zito said. In Centera, the application that created the data must request the data for retrieval; whereas HP’s system allows the data retrieval without an application making the request. This is important for potential future problems, such as when an application has been uninstalled or is no longer in use.

Just last week, EMC announced its 100th application had been integrated to work with Centera and 140 more were in process. Zito said HP’s solution does not require third-party integration, which he believes is unique to the market. Another advantage Zito believes HP’s forthcoming product will have is its grid architecture that can not only scale in storage capacity, but also in compute capacity as data load grows.

Also this week, Permabit will introduce a compliance edition of its Permeon software that also allows enterprises to archive fixed content with a unique identifier for each piece of data.

As does Centera, Permeon creates a unique identifier for each piece of reference data archived, which can then be assigned a retention period as specified by a particular regulation. But beyond their common capabilities, Permeon can also recognize, for example, when a single slide in a Microsoft PowerPoint document has been changed and can save that changed slide, rather than resaving the entire file.

This will save disk space — something EMC has no incentive to do given that its solution is sold with disk, said Stephen Ellis, vice president of business development at Permabit.

Randy Wilson, assistant vice president of IT at Essex Investment Management, chose Perambit over EMC for that reason. “Not having to buy expensive disk from EMC was one of the top three reasons I went with Permabit,” he said. “If I went with EMC, I’d be tied into them to buy disk.” Wilson has the compliance edition of the Permeon software running on Dell hardware in order to meet both Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) regulations.