Auspex Systems Inc, Santa Clara claims its data mirroring back-up software for networked servers is an industry first but the product sounds suspiciously similiar to Los-Angeles-based 1776 Inc’s RNA Replication Network Architecture. Auspex’s offering, ServerGuard, mirrors the contents of its Network File System using its distributed file system protocol and then re-synchronises data on both servers, file by file, so users still have access to the rest of the files on the remaining server. 1776 has a facility within RNA called Safety Net that does just this. Confusingly, 1776 also has its own ServerGuard product but it provides local server clustering for disk and system failures. Auspex’s ServerGuard ships next quarter for its NS7000/200 servers at ú15,000, for the NS700/500 and NS 7000/600 from ú25,000.
