Computer Associates International Inc has started shipping its ARCserve Replication product, designed to enable high data availability for NT users. The company has developed the system as part of its ARCserve storage management system and is aiming it at companies requiring zero tolerance data. Although the product has been designed as part of ArcServe it will also be available for Unicenter TNG, CA’s systems management offering. The product provides real time data replication and according to CA, virtually eliminates the loss of data access associated with server crashes, server damage or broken network connections. It has also been designed to protect users against data loss between scheduled backups. ARCserve Replication can be implemented on networks of any size, enabling businesses to have access to data at all times, even when there has been a network or server crash. It contains transactional integrity, technology that makes sure only completed transactions are placed on a network’s secondary server, which CA claims eliminates the risk of data corruption. Disk drives do not need to be put out of action when replication tasks are executed or re-configured, instead it stays up and running. When replication does take place, it is carried out in real time moving the data to a secondary server and the failover time is, according to CA, instantaneous and transparent to the users. The secondary server doesn’t have to be anything fancy, so long as it provides standard file and print service on the Local Area Network. ARCserve Replication is licensed per primary server and has a list price of $3,000.
