Startup Boots Bigger Backup Boxes

IntraDyn Inc. today announced larger-capacity versions of its RocketVault backup appliance, attempting to broaden the company's customer base as the need for data archive and offsite backup grows.

The new models are rack-mountable versions of the original RocketVault announced in June (see IntraDyn Launches Archiving Appliance). The latest RocketVault models offer either 640 Gbytes or 4 Tbytes of hot-swappable serial ATA disk-to-disk local storage, priced at $4,995 and $10,995 respectively. The original RocketVault provided between 240 and 500 Gbytes of storage.

IntraDyn CEO Gary Doan says the first release of RocketVault was built for vertical markets, primarily healthcare, accounting, legal, and financial companies with five to 50 employees. The new units are better suited for medium-sized businesses, he says.

"The new releases have unlimited client access," he says. "They're for larger companies, with hundreds of uses. They're certainly good for any industry that has compliance issues."

RocketVault backs up data on the LAN and stores it locally and remotely. The appliance moves files to remote locations either through pre-encrypted file level with 256-bit AES or block-level replication over an encrypted line.Doan says the RocketVault is faster and more reliable than tape. He claims its proprietary software gives it better offsite replication capability than StorServer Inc.'s appliances, and that Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek)'s (NYSE: STK) backup appliances are aimed at higher-end customers.

"The difference between us and StorageTek is this is an IP device," he says. "We're not replicated through the SAN."

Mike Karp, senior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates, says RocketVault's strength is its ease of use. IntraDyn claims RocketVault runs automatically after the customer plugs it in and does a one-time test. Karp said RocketVault will bring advanced data protection capabilities to medium-sized businesses.

"I like it because it's simple," says Karp. "The idea of bringing advanced capabilities to the masses at an affordable price appeals to me. They may have stolen the march on a lot of competitors."

RocketVault appears on the network as a Windows file-sharing computer. Its RocketControl software allows management through a Web browser, while RocketArchive Engine handles load balancing and archiving.Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch