Web Host SoftLayer Introduces New StorageLayer Features

SoftLayer Technologies, an on-demand data center service provider, has extended its StorageLayer service with features providing geographic replication utilizing iSCSI storage and EVault online disk backup. As with all SoftLayer solutions, StorageLayer and these new features are fully automated and can be provisioned at-will through SoftLayer’s proprietary customer portal and API.

"StorageLayer is always evolving to remain the ultimate storage solution," said Information Systems Director Jacob Linscott. "With these new features, StorageLayer leverages our iSCSI SAN advantages and our data centers’ geographic diversity to provide even more powerful options for data security. Remote data replication is essential for our customers’ business continuity and disaster recovery plans."

StorageLayer is SoftLayer’s redundant centralized storage array. It integrates multiple storage technologies into a unified solution to give companies of all sizes unprecedented gains in efficiency, accessibility, and reliability for data storage and backup. Today’s additions include:

• iSCSI volumes for automatically replicating data to multiple SoftLayer data centers
• EVault enhancements to allow backup data to multiple SoftLayer data centers
• Snapshots for iSCSI volumes to track and store changes over time

StorageLayer customers can utilize EVault to automate simultaneous backups of a single dedicated server to multiple sites. "They can use StorageLayer to have a back up stored locally and then replicated at one of our data centers in another city – and it all happens at the same time," said Mr. Linscott. EVault lets administrators schedule backups on an hourly, daily, weekly, or custom schedule, and target full systems, specific directories, or even individual files.

With iSCSI snapshot capabilities, StorageLayer customers can schedule point-in-time snapshots of their data volumes to provide another local backup solution. The snapshots can be accessed at any time to recover lost data or to be compared with current data. This feature complements the offsite replication capabilities available on iSCSI volumes within StorageLayer.