CommVault Simpana 8, a new release of the enterprise data management software – which includes advances in recovery management, data reduction, virtual server protection, and content organisation – is now available.

The new release will help companies manage larger amounts of data, scale to accommodate a globally distributed enterprise, and implement cost-saving strategies by offering users new snapshot-based data management, data deduplication, laptop and desktop protection, remote office data management and advanced copy management features.

Global Embedded Software Data Deduplication

With global embedded software data deduplication, Simpana 8 offers a holistic approach to data deduplication that spans both disk and tape tiers of storage.

Unlike appliance-based solutions that limit dedupe benefits to the boundaries of the box, CommVault's end-to-end approach expands the benefits of block-level deduplication across an entire organisation's backup and archive copies, resulting in cost-efficient scaling and performance across the entire data management infrastructure. Data reduction begins at the client and spans through, and includes, off-site tape copies. This holistic approach results in faster network data transfers, shorter backup windows, faster recoveries and a more efficient utilisation of the disk infrastructure to support customer recovery SLAs.

Simpana software automatically preserves the compressed state of the deduplicated data as it is transparently migrated to tiers of cheaper storage for longer retention needs.

Recovery Capabilities Optimised for Business Critical Information

Simpana 8 provides multiple options for protecting business critical data at distributed remote and branch office locations. These solutions facilitate WAN efficient transfers to pass compressed and encrypted data between sites, as well as rapid recovery that helps to minimise the risk and cost of downtime. Centralised, automated policies applied to data residing on workstations and laptops help facilitate compliance and search for rapid eDiscovery of both backup and archive data. End users can also perform their own recoveries, eliminating the need for local administrators and providing further cost savings.

Snapshot Protection Capabilities Eliminate Backup Window

Simpana 8’s new SnapBackup feature integrates seamlessly with hardware-based snapshot technologies to create persistent application and data consistent recovery copies directly from snapshots, bypassing the production server and eliminating the need for an operational backup window. Transparent, off-host processing sequences catalogue the contents of the snapshot, validate the data and manage the logs to complete the protection and archive process. Data retention policies automatically promote selective copies to nearline/deduplicated stores or offline/vaulted copies while preserving the ability for a point and click simple recovery of complex applications. New offline mining tools for Exchange, SharePoint and Active Directory complement the SnapBackup feature by extending the ability to recover granular messages and documents directly from database recovery copies.

Content Organisation Features Streamline Information Classification

Simpana 8 provides an innovative enterprise content classification engine that automatically classifies and categorises content based on defined rules and search patterns. These link to workflow policies that seamlessly profile, organise and repurpose content to meet specific information management tasks, including legal hold for eDiscovery.