What Is A Backup Appliance?

By John Pearring, President, STORServer, Inc.

Every business operation has data management requirements revolving around the three data protection areas: backup, archive and disaster recovery. In the past, the only option companies had available to them was to purchase each component separately. That is, companies had to buy a library, buy software, and either put the software on an existing server, or buy a new box to be a server.

Colorado-based STORServer®, Inc., was one of the first companies to introduce a new approach to storage: the "backup appliance," designed so that customers buy a single box that includes everything, from disks and tape libraries, to software, to the case it's all housed in. Since it's an allin- one appliance, it's as easy to use as "plug and play." NetApp and Nexsan offer similar products in the form of NAS type boxes that sell disk-based cabinets as backup devices, but they require the purchase of additional software or other components; STORServer does not.

Traditional backup and recovery products typically don't offer online data retrieval, making immediate access to saved information next to impossible. An all-in-one backup appliance allows companies to retrieve both their backup and archived information within minutes. Backup copies of data are stored on tape within the appliance, and archived data can be stored on local shelves, near-line storage, or also in the appliance. Disaster recovery capabilities in a backup appliance keeps an off-site copy of both the backups and archives, allowing the backups and archives to remain on-site.