BridgeSTOR With PCIe Hardware Compression for Backup-to-Disk Servers

BridgeSTOR, LLC announced its Compression Card for Backup Servers.

The new offering includes a dedicated PCIe card-resident data reduction processor and accompanying software that enables storage and data protection managers to add data compression and encryption to new and existing backup-to-disk servers.

BridgeSTOR enables data centers performing backup to disk to add the capital and operating expense savings of capacity-multiplying data compression, as simply and conveniently as they deploy hardware-based data compression in tape drives.

Adding the BridgeSTOR Compression Card to a Windows Server 2008-based backup server can reduce backup to disk capacity requirements by up to 50% while simultaneously reducing backup time by as much as 2/3.

BridgeSTOR’s Compression Card for Backup Servers operates transparently in-line in single and multi-stream environments. Both traditional backup software and the newest generation of deduplicating backup software from Symantec, CA Technologies, CommVault, Quest Software (BakBone) and others benefit from BridgeSTOR data compression.

Compression reduces backup-to-disk storage requirements and boosts the capacity reduction effectiveness of deduplicating backup software. For example, a 10:1 deduplication ratio produced by backup software combined with a 2:1 hardware-enabled compression ratio produces an overall data reduction ratio of 20:1.

The BridgeSTOR Compression Card transforms physical disk capacity into capacity-optimized disk storage by reducing the amount of data stored by up to 50 percent – or up to a 2:1 data reduction ratio. The BridgeSTOR Compression Card is a user-installed combination of specialized software and a dedicated data reduction processor installed on a PCIe card. The Compression Card is available for suitably equipped HP ProLiant DL180, DL185, Dell PowerEdge R510, R610, R710, R810, IBM x-Series M2 and M3 and other servers.

To optimize performance, servers in which the Compression Card are installed should use internal disk drives, or low latency SAS or FC-attached external disk storage.

The hardware component of the BridgeSTOR Compression Card for DPM is the Exar, Inc. 8200 Series data reduction and security processor installed on a PCIe (x4) card. The Exar 8200 Series processor is a specialized, high-performance component that enables data compression and encryption to be performed in-line without compromising performance and without burdening the main system processor.

Software supplied with the BridgeSTOR Compression Card for Backup Servers adds the GUI, drivers, compression processing logic, system interfaces, block manager and utilities required to implement data compression and security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 environment.

The product includes a set of detailed installation, configuration and performance optimization instructions, telephone-based implementation assistance and a one-year warranty on the hardware and software.

"Backup storage administrators have used compression in tape drives for years to reduce the number of tape cartridges to store backups while optionally adding encryption," said John Matze, BridgeSTOR founder and CEO. "Backup managers know that using software compression burns valuable CPU cycles. Making affordable, hardware-based compression available for backup-to-disk folders lets you keep more backups on line for longer periods, improving data recovery. BridgeSTOR’s Compression Card installs in new or existing backup servers to produce immediate cost savings by requiring the purchase of fewer disk drives while providing on-going operational savings."

By adding data compression to reduce backup storage requirements, BridgeSTOR’s Compression Card reduces the cost of acquiring storage hardware and provides on-going reductions in data center operational expenses including electrical power, cooling, rack space, post-warranty support and management time requirements.

List pricing for BridgeSTOR’s Compression Card for Backup Servers is $995 to compress up to 64TB of physical disk storage.

Read also:
BridgeSTOR Announces De-Dupe, Compression and Encryption Solution
For Windows Server 2008, with Exar PCIe card