CommVault releases next generation data management

Simplified licensing process for resellers.

CommVault has released the next generation of its data management software, Simpana. Simpana 9 aimed to reduce the complexity of backups through "singular information management", Gerry Sillars, CommVault's vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan, said.

Simpana could combine snapshots from hardware from different vendors into one searchable database that it could index and use for file retrieval. 

This approach could save on administrative costs, Sillars said. Customers were tending to buy more than one storage vendor to avoid lock-in but sometimes would have to hire a specialist for each vendor's platform.

Users could use Simpana's graphical interface to manage snapshots and backups rather than learn to use an interface for each product from NetApp, EMC, HP or other storage vendor.

"We are overlaying the graphical user interface over the hardware vendor's technology. They don't have to know where the data is sitting. It's totally transparent," Sillars said.

The backup software relied on snapshots to remove the time (or "window") between backups, Sillars said. "With snapshots you can get to windowless backup."

Other features included virtualisation scalability, data deduplication, automatic integration with hardware array-based snapshots, and migration tools to CommVault's Simpana 9 platform.

The vendor introduced capacity based licensing with Simpana 9 which reduced 1200 line items to eight. Online accounts gave users the ability to add, move or change licences. 

CommVault had made added tools to import policies from competing products by IBM and Symantec.

The software was available to resellers free with a 30 day trial to speed up demonstrations.