FalconStor Software, Inc.has announced the general availability of a new, unified solution for improving backup and deduplication. The Optimized Backup and Deduplication Solution 8.0 takes the functionality of two of FalconStor’s existing products, VTL (Virtual Tape Library) and FDS (File-interface Deduplication System), and combines them into a single platform with a common user interface.

This unified platform approach delivers cost savings of up to 50%, while improving performance up to 65% to get more done in less time. With today’s product release, FalconStor further demonstrates its commitment to transitioning all of its technology to a unified platform, giving customers the freedom to manage their data and to ensure it is there when and where they need it most.

“Having a unified, platform-based approach to data management not only simplifies day-to-day management, but it allows customers to do more with less — less complexity, less money, and less technology required — all while improving backup performance and availability,” said Gary Quinn, president and CEO, FalconStor.

“We will be announcing new solutions over the course of the year, to bring all of the elements of data management into a single, unified data management and services platform with a common user interface. We will offer solutions including migration, business continuity, protection & recovery, and the optimized backup and deduplication solution we’ve launched today. All of this change is focused on providing customers the power to be free — from managing multiple products and from proprietary vendor lock-in, and freedom from worry about data loss and downtime,” continued Quinn.

FalconStor Optimized Backup and Deduplication Solution 8.0 allows users to manage both block and file backup and deduplication on a single node, requiring 50% less hardware. The deduplication solution also reduces needed storage capacity by up to 95%, further lowering solutions costs.

The enhancements also include a new cascading replication feature that enhances disaster tolerance, further ensuring a critical company asset, data, is available when it’s needed. Patented-WAN optimized, deduplicated replication makes data transfers and recoveries faster, while reducing WAN costs and overhead by as much as 95%.

Customers have the freedom to choose how they want to purchase the technology — as software, as an integrated appliance on Dell, IBM or Hitachi hardware, or as a gateway using their existing storage. This flexibility enables the technology to work in almost any environment, allowing users to maintain performance as they scale and to expand capacity behind a single node, a capability that most competitors lack. This translates directly to cost savings by protecting existing investments and minimizing additional hardware and software to grow the solution to keep up with today’s explosion of data.

Key performance highlights include:

More backups in less time:The NAS interface is 300 percent faster than the 7.0 version, averaging a sustained 6TB/hour throughput. Typical users can now complete 12 more backup jobs in an hour with the combined interface.

• Real performance at a lower cost: The VTL interface is 35 percent faster than the version 7.5, offering a sustained 11.2TB/hour throughput using a single node.
• Single-node sustained performance is equal to or greater than competitors’ multi-node solutions and has no impact to the backup server. “Boost” is not needed.
• Average backup window is now three-times shorter– 2.8 hours vs. 8 hours – resulting in 65 percent less time spent by IT administrators managing backups.
• Cascaded replication offers higher availability and reliability and up to 95% WAN optimization savings during replication.  
• Reduced Complexity- Optimized out of the box with wizard-driven set up for local and remote deployment, as well as unified reporting for storage and growth management.

“Merz Pharma GmbH & Co. was able to beta test FalconStor’s new Optimized Backup and Deduplication Solution as a plug-in application, and we were happy with the performance,” said Thorsten Bellan, head of Datacenter EMEA, Merz Pharma. “For testing, a VTL environment was created with the device attached over Fibre Channel to a NetBackup Media Server. We saw a significant improvement in backup performance, which was especially surprising considering our legacy DL380 server is 5 years old. Deduplication was also tested by creating a NAS resource to copy files – which ultimately reduces the amount of data needed for backup and would successfully reduce time and money spent on storage. We’d recommend FalconStor’s Optimized Backup and Deduplication Solution for any organization interested in enhancing the efficiency of data backup.”

“Our optimized backup and deduplication is designed to empower customers. It seamlessly integrates with existing platforms and is scalable to evolving business requirements, and frees customers from the constraints of traditional backup and overinflated costs of data protection,” said Quinn.