IBM and Actifio add data virtualization solutions

The new service – IBM SmartCloud Data Virtualization (SCDV) – will enable customers to decouple their application data from their physical infrastructure, improving business resiliency, agility, and the ability to move more seamlessly into the cloud.

As organizations move toward cloud-based systems, many struggle with the complexity and cost associated with application data bound to physical infrastructure. Independent silos of hardware and software built to support backup, business continuity, development and test, analytics, and compliance make it difficult to move data where it needs to be, to both safely protect and quickly develop the applications on which a business often depends.

By virtualizing data management, IBM SmartCloud Data Virtualization breaks down the walls of these silos. A single, physical copy – stored wherever it makes the most sense for a given customer – can be used to create multiple virtual copies, in support of any business application. Infrastructure is collapsed as data protection and availability SLA’s are improved, resulting in compelling economic and strategic value created for the customer.
IBM SmartCloud® Data Virtualization leverages Actifio’s Virtual Data Pipeline™ technology to provide a unique model for managing critical data, without the expense of managing excess copies. Clients can reclaim production storage capacity, improve data center utilization, and quickly recover critical servers, resulting in a dramatically lower total cost of ownership than can be achieved through traditional means.

Cloud-based recovery services are expected to provide higher degrees of resiliency, faster response, and ease of use through self-service, automation, and economies of scale greater than traditional disaster recovery services. This new offering delivers on these objectives with application recovery in minutes versus hours, point-in-time data snapshots to help eliminate traditional back-up windows, and drastically improves production storage. The recoverability of an application can be tested – in real-time – without any disruption to the production system. Test failovers can be performed more frequently and, in the event of an actual failover, changes are logged and are automatically re-synched with the primary production system when failback is initiated.

“IBM’s SmartCloud Data Virtualization combines the power of Actifio’s data virtualization platform with IBM’s Resiliency technology and operational reliability,” said Laurence Guihard-Joly, General Manager for IBM’s Business Continuity and Resiliency Services. “As part of our growing portfolio of cloud software, services and expertise that help clients tackle any IT or business challenge with confidence, security and trust, SCDV will not only offer many customers faster recovery times at better price points, it will enable them to leverage their protected data as a business asset rather than simply an insurance policy."

“We’re excited IBM has chosen our platform for this strategic cloud initiative, and to be working closely with them to bring more customers the power of our combined offering as they move to take advantage of the transformative economics of the cloud,” said Actifio Founder and CEO Ash Ashutosh. “The bottom line here is thousands of IBM customers are now able to achieve better SLA’s for more mission critical applications, accelerating their business and their path into the cloud.”