Storage software maker Archivas upgraded its core application with new
search and indexing perks and added more availability and performance.
The Waltham, Mass., company’s Cluster (ArC), version 1.5 software is
different from data movement applications manufactured by rivals Veritas,
OuterBay or iLumin.
ArC is data repository software that receives content
from other e-mail or database movers and associates policies to the files
before tucking them away.
ArC, which stores files in XML and HTML so that applications are not chained
to the archive, is so named because it runs as a cluster on any Linux-based
server. The trick is open software API, which appears to applications or
users as a file system.
Ashim Zaheer, a vice president at Archivas, said the indexing feature is
crucial from systems where millions of files, such as e-mails, PDFs, or
photos are stored. Archiving products from vendors like EMC, Network
Appliance and HP have advanced search utilities, too. But Zaheer said ArC
searches file contents, not just metadata or file names.
“So if you’re a large company trying to dig out e-mail related to an
employee in a customer interaction from five years ago, you can do a keyword
search on a term that might be embedded in an e-mail or IM between those two
parties,” Zaheer said. “It makes search and retrieval much easier.”
Archivas is looking to be a leader in the emerging content-addressed storage
(CAS) market for storing data that must not be changed, which is something enterprise
customers have been focusing on in the wake of more stringent record-
retention policies.
Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and other regulations have been a thorn in the sides
of corporations, which is why they are adding new technology, such as CAS
software, to meet the demands.
Zaheer said compliance rules are a major reason why ArC 1.5 can also now
sustain up to three simultaneous failures at one time by making multiple
copies of a file and its metadata in a cluster. Competing products absorb
one failure.
Lastly, by tweaking the software-messaging layer, Archivas engineers have
boosted the performance of ArC v1.5 over the previous version, meaning more
files can be written into the archive. ArC 1.5 absorbs files at five times
the performance of the competition, vital for organizations archiving
millions of e-mails.
With the upgrades, the company hopes to grow its customer base beyond the
dozen it won over since launching earlier this year, Zaheer said.
ArC 1.5 is available now, is generally $12 and $15 a gigabyte including
hardware. Current customers include the The New York Botanical Garden and
NASA’s, Goddard Space Flight Center and Cancer Therapy & Research Center.
