News

posted on 04 March 2008 17:05

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Hitachi Data Systems' Data Discovery Suite, sourced from FAST, delivers file content search and migration services across network-attached storage (NAS) resources and HDS' Content Archive Platform (CAP).

HDS' CAP was upgraded today in an allied announcement. 

HDS' overall view of these capabilities is that it can now deliver 'common search, retention, movement and protection of data - extending its capabilities in block storage data management to file services with in an integrated services-oriented platform.'

The background to this is as it is to the other HDS, BlueArc and Brocade announcements today, and also to several other recent announcements, is accelerating and apparently unstoppable growth in unstructured file data that has to be stored, protected and made searchable for compliance and regulatory reasons.

IDC uses the notion of unmanaged or rogue - a colourful term - data that poses compliance risks and Laura DuBois, an iDC storage software research director, says: "With the Hitachi Data Discovery Suite, Hitachi Data Systems offers a viable solution to companies who are trying to eliminate risk and manage rogue data before it impacts the bottom line."

What is rogue data?
Rogue data seems to be data that is unknown to a business' eDiscovery facilities and cannot be found by them.

Michael Hay, senior director for product strategy at HDS, said: "We view rogue data as a critical problem the market and our customers are trying to solve. Even moderate amounts of uncontrolled rogue data can increase the potential of not finding the right data at the right time."

HDS spokespeople say its DDS product helps business more efficiently manage and mitigate the risks associated with such data.

DDS features
The DDS software enables customers and ISV partners to perform self-service file restoration, cross-platform search and retrieval, and reporting of file-based tiering. HDS says that eDiscovery work becomes easier through using DDS facilities.

John M. Lervik, CEO of FAST, said: "Hitachi Data Discovery Suite provides federated search across many file storage instances, simplified HSM (hierarchical storage management) functions, and assistance in understanding discovery risks with storing files across a continuum of platforms."

Brocade has contributed a product to DDS. Here is Don Jaworski, VP and GM of Brocade's Files Division. "As customers seek comprehensive, end-to-end solutions to address their file management challenges, Brocade is excited about the opportunity to provide Brocade StorageX file virtualization software as an essential component of the new Hitachi Data Discovery Suite."

StorageX provides file virtualisation and migration facilities across heterogeneous NAS (network-attached storage) platforms.

HDS' DDS will enable enterprise content management, e-mail archiving and other third-party applications to write directly to the Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform, which can virtualise heterogeneous NAS products connected to it, and migrate that data to the Hitachi Content Archive Platform for long-term data preservation. It will provide secure, seamless data discovery and migration across these different tiers of storage.

The Hitachi Data Discovery Suite is also integrated with Microsoft Active Directory and Windows Vista Gadget for simple and secure search and file restoration from a user’s desktop.

SharePoint version
Hitachi also announced Hitachi Data Discovery for Microsoft SharePoint. It works with HDS' CAP and gives users a simple way to archive files to that product. It also provides administrative searching across all content stored withinCAP. The software can span many SharePoint sites allowing fully authenticated and authorized ubiquitous access. With it users can also set up proactive RSS feeds that can detect rogue data or information relevant to a discovery request.

Hay said: "Hitachi Data Discovery for Microsoft SharePoint is able to help our users reduce their electronic discovery risk by simplifying steps required to both control and find rogue content. This is accomplished by allowing users to search for content stored in the Hitachi Content Archive platform, and perform sampling via a Microsoft Vista desktop gadget."

No pricing or availability information was supplied.