Index Engines Makes Data Domain Backups Searchable

Index Engines' appliances make backup data searchable without theneed to restore that data first. For companies undergoing thee-discovery process, the ability to index unrestored data can savesignificant time and effort. This month, the company announced it hastested and validated the latest version of its platform, Index Engines3.0, on EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems, enabling fullcontent and metadata indexing of backup data. Users can index andsearch backed up data and only extract those portions relevant to thediscovery effort.

Index Engines claims a single node achieved sustained indexing ratesof over 1 Terabyte per hour on a Data Domain DD690 storage system."This really is focused on speed and fast processing power," says JimMcGann, VP of information discovery at Index Engines, headquartered inHolmdel, N.J. The company also announced it has joined the EMC VelocityTechnology and ISV Program, which had previously been a partner inEMC's earlier ISV programs.

A global oil and gas company, which asked not to be identified, hasbeen using Index Engines' platform to index several terabytes of data,particularly in the last several months. "We needed a solution that canscale on the backend in terms of performance, "says the company'sstorage systems manager. He says the company chose Index Enginesbecause of its high performance rate. Index Engines industry-standardprotocols such as the Network Data Management Protocol, which can befaster than CIFS or NFS for moving data across the network. Thespokesman says that near-term, his company plans to work with IndexEngine to see if they can deliver similar scalability in extractingdata from storage systems "as that's where the bottleneck is."

Index Engines 3.0 was unveiled earlier in the year, and McGann saysthe company has been rolling it out and testing it with differentplatforms. In August 2009, Index Engines announced that its nodes couldperform full content and metadata indexing on BlueArc NAS devices atsustained rates of up to 1 Terabyte per hour using only a singleindexing node. The speed was validated by BlueArc for data residing onthe BlueArc Titan platform.Previous versions of Index Engines platform focused on the abilityto scan backup tapes and enable the rapid search and extraction of thecontent without the original backup software. "In the past, storagepeople and IT people didn't really care about what was contained in thedata, they just stored and backed it up and retained it," McGann says.But constantly evolving regulations and security considerations forcecompanies to understand what data is stored and where. Index Engines'technology has the ability to grab metadata from offline tapes or fromdisks, organize it and turn it into a searchable repository.