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Product Comparison: CA ARCserve High Availablity and Double-Take Availablity
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The following article was published by Productive Corporation to provide its customers with an additional resource in determining the right software solutions for their company's environment. Productive produces content focusing on the relevant issues of Mid-Market IT professionals to give its customers perspective on current trends. Recent topics have included patch management, hosted recovery on demand, as well the evolution of software licensing.
In the realm of data recovery and back-up software, IT professionals are looking for fast-working, effective programs that will provide coverage to an entire network. Luckily, they have two great choices in CA ARCserve High Availability and Double-Take Availability. This review will help IT professionals decide which product best fits their organization's needs.
Data recovery is extremely important for any business, big or small. It's extremely important that IT professionals choose a data backup approach that is appropriate for their company. A once viable option was RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks), which provided protection against a single hard-drive failure. In this day and age, however, RAID is no longer the ideal program to use.
Many advanced and more-effective backup systems are on the market. Ones that offer protection over an entire network rather than a single computer/user is vital as your business expands and more protection is needed. CDP (Continuous Data Protection) is certainly the way to go. It offers real-time backup and advanced recovery options. In the event of data loss, the system can recover data saved literally seconds before the failure occurred.
Two CDP programs, Double-Take Availability and CA ARCserve High Availability, will be compared in this review. Each one will be carefully examined - product components, features, benefits, and licensing will be discussed and the similarities and differences will be assessed - to give IT professionals a guide to choosing the backup software that is perfect for their company.
CA ARCSERVE HIGH AVAILABILITY
Formerly known as XOsoft High Availability, CA ARCserve High Availability r15 can easily replicate a company's virtual or physical servers. This enhanced version of the backup software maximizes uptime while offering continuous data protection to complement any backup solution. The "r15" release is the latest version, offering even more features and improvements that IT professionals and business managers will appreciate.
This is also a CDP program that works in real-time, meaning all data that is backed-up (and possibly recovered) will be from minutes, even seconds, before failure occurred. The software is installed on any computer connected to the primary server. A third-party data center, or remote or local location, controls it and all the data backup/recovery that occurs on each computer. Your operating system, system state, applications, and data are all protected.
Continuous data protection is based on Rewind Technology, a major component of the old XOsoft High Availability software and what has become a staple of CA replication software. It works to recover data from a failure, or even data corrupted by virus action or user error. As the program runs, availability of applications like Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint, as well as virus protection or any other critical application, is ensured.
Simplicity is key with ARCserve High Availability. A complex clustering architecture is not required - in fact, ARCserve can be downloaded, used, and monitored by a single unit. Your servers and applications are monitored. Users are automatically notified and redirected at the first sight of trouble. The servers are kept up-to-date by continually replicating all changes (including saving files, updating databases, sending emails, downloading, etc.), which in-turn minimizes bandwidth and opens up storage space.
Protection and backup can be set manually by automated push-button failover and failback, which transfers users to a stand-by server, either on the same network or a distant site. Installation is extremely simple - automated remote installation and wizard-driven creations of new disaster recovery scenarios are possible. Integration with other backup and recovery software is also possible. Data loss is minimized to nearly 0%, while automated non-disruptive recovery testing is available.
CA ARCserve High Availability is available for Windows, Linux, and UNIX platforms.
DOUBLE-TAKE AVAILABILITY
Using a remote backup server, Double-Take Availability replicates data in real-time and protects it instantly, in the event of a software crash or failure. It uses a central host server, from which data on all other computers connected to the host is controlled. Continuous data replication over any distance is provided. The software provides access to the most current copy of any data, program, application, and OS connected to your computer. The Full-Server Failover feature transfers OS configuration, application, and data to your target server ensuring anytime availability.
If a failure occurs, server recovery for as many computers necessary is possible. For maximum protection against data loss, replicated data can be sent over standard IP networks to a distant disaster recovery site. The data can be compressed before sending, improving performance. Four options are available for data compression, including three enabling options and one disabling option. The clustering option eliminates single points of failure and works efficiently to restore applications after a failure.
More control over the bandwidth and storage space is possible. IT professionals have the ability to manage data on the backup server and changes to all protected files. Asynchronous, Byte-Level, and Continuous replication take place, meaning only the bytes that appear as changed are replicated immediately, unless an unchanged byte is manually replicated. It's ensured that the replication process does not impact production applications.
Both physical and virtual servers can be backed-up or replicated. Double-Take Availability integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Hyper-V management interfaces, allowing IT professionals to see a listing of all the virtual or physical machines in the environment and easily choose which ones to connect and protect. Servers can be further monitored with the Double-Take Application Manager (DTAM). The Install Console helps to deploy and maintain installations throughout the network.+
All replication options can be easily configured. Failover can occur through a single backup server or a cluster of units. Integration of Pre-Failover and Post-Failover Scripts allows custom actions to be performed before and after a data switch. Existing networks can be incorporated, email alerts can be sent, replications can be scheduled, reports and statistics are easily accessible . . . all in the matter of minutes.
Double-Take Availability is available for Windows and Linux platforms.
PRODUCT COMPARISON AND BENEFITS
You've now read about both CA ARCserve High Availability and Double-Take Availability - it's time to decide which one is best for your business. This isn't an easy process. Every IT professional wants the absolute best protection and backup software for their business' data, but knowing your business will make it easier to choose protection that fits it best.
Looking simply at the facts, both products are extremely similar. They offer continuous byte-level data replication, in real-time, on both virtual and physical servers. Control from a universal agent is a highlight, while both work immediately to detect changes in data and recover it from before the changes occurred. Failover and failback are available options, in which the user can instantly switch to a redundant disaster-recovery site in case of failure.
While their similarities and individual attributes have already been discussed in full, it's the differences that matter most. Double-Take offers one major benefit over CA ARCserve, which is the ability to compress data before sending it to an alternate server. This data compression capability allows for a faster-running server and more free space for additional data to be recovered.
However, the best choice for disaster recovery and backup software goes to CA ARCserve High Availability r15, especially after its recent enhancements. Unlike the old XOsoft, it does offer data compression and scheduling capabilities. It supports registry replication, and is overall easier for any IT Professional to use. With its latest enhancements, including a multi-stream replication feature, a custom application protection wizard, a major speed improvement, and far less data loss, it's the top of the line.
CA ARCserve High Availability can be used with other recovery programs, and offers numerous related programs, including ARCserve Backup and D2D and ARCserve Replication. A beta version of Backup is available, while a newer beta version of High Availability - ARCserve Beta r16 - is in the works.
LICENSING AND PRICING
CA ARCserve offers complete licensing for an entire business at a single cost. Meanwhile, for Double-Take, complications can arise for IT Professionals over the fact that it can only be purchased on a “per server and/or virtual machine” basis. This could end up costing a lot of money, depending on the size of the business.
CONCLUSION
Overall, while both software programs offer unique benefits, based on the information presented, IT professionals would be smart to choose CA ARCserve High Availability. Not only is it easier to purchase, it's easier to use, minimizing system downtime and data loss to avoid interruptions in your business. For the best data backup and recovery software on the market, CA ARCserve High Availability takes the edge.