Meet & Manage Disaster Recovery Requirements with Ease

InMage Scout is primarily deployed to meet disaster recovery requirements although it can also be configured to simultaneously solve problems with local backup. InMage foundation technologies include continuous data protection (CDP), asynchronous replication over IP, application failover/failback, and WAN optimization, and it leverages disk as the recovery media. CDP enables InMage Scout to capture data for recovery purposes unobtrusively and immediately generate recovery points that can effectively rewind an application to any previous point in time. Asynchronous replication, configurable in 1 to 1, 1 to N, and N to 1 configurations, supports short or long distance DR requirements over IP networks, while our WAN optimization technologies allow us to support even large applications using very little bandwidth. Application failover/failback leverages a shared nothing model, instead of the shared disk model that conventional availability clustering software uses, to enable high availability for any application environment. All these capabilities are combined into a single software-based platform that supports Windows, Linux, and Unix environments as well as heterogeneous storage and storage architectures (DAS, SAN, NAS, iSCSI, FC).

A key differentiator for InMage Scout is that it provides for DR solutions that enable recoveries from or at remote sites literally within minutes in a product that distinguishes itself for its efficient use of WAN bandwidth. It debunks the perception that DR configurations are expensive and inflexible, allowing customers to preserve their existing investments in hardware, software, and networks as they deploy a DR solution that can meet very stringent recovery point objective, recovery time objective, and recovery reliability requirements.

Inmage Scout to meet disaster recovery requirements

InMage Scout collects data locally across a LAN, and then replicates that data to one or more targets that can be either local or remote. A distinguishing feature of our architecture is that it minimizes impacts on the production servers while still offering significant functionality. It can do this because most of the functionality has been off loaded to the CX - the data taps on the production servers are basically just collecting writes as they occur and sending them to the CX. This model is much more scalable and requires significantly less overhead than host-based replication products, does not impose the vendor lock-in or cost of array-based replication, and does not require a SAN or deployment in appliance pairs like most appliance options. It is a truly unique architecture in the industry that deploys rapidly, is rich in functionality, and is very flexible: we call it our "hybrid recovery technology".

There are three primary use cases for InMage Scout: disaster recovery, backup elimination, and application recovery.

For disaster recovery, we support cost-effective configurations that enable recovery from or at remote sites within minutes with minimal data loss. A notable feature of InMage Scout for DR is its very efficient use of WAN bandwidth, due to its use of block-based, asynchronous replication as well as other WAN optimization technologies.

For backup elimination, we move customers away from the notion of backup as a discrete operation that impacts business operations. InMage Scout captures data as it is created, effectively spreading "backup" out across the day so that its impact is not noticeable. We don't make backup better, we eliminate it, yet provide for very granular recovery capabilities that can meet the most stringent RPO/RTO requirements.

For application recovery, we offer application-aware failover/failback templates that are proven reliable by InMage. These capabilities extend our recovery features beyond just "data", differentiating us from "backup" products. We enable rapid and reliable data recovery at both the object and full system level directly from disk when that is required, and provide for fully automated application recovery, both remotely and locally, using recovery points generated by InMage Scout, when that is required.