Crossroads ReadVerify Appliance (RVA)

Highlights

• Helps reduce data risk by monitoring library activity and providing alerts on the health and integrity of the tape drives and media
• Optimizes tape resources by providing visibility into the root cause of incomplete backups, unbalanced drive usage and low performing assets
• Helps meet regulatory compliance and reduce long-term data risk through fully automated, policy-driven validation of tape media readability (requires ArchiveVerify optional feature)
• Provides dynamic, multi-variable user-managed reporting for understanding complex system interactions and projecting future budget and system needs (requires ReadVerify Advanced Reporting optional feature)

• Allows visibility into balance and usage of library resources
• Offers real-time alerting for advanced notification that applications may be in the process of failing
• Identifies overused assets to prevent premature wear
• Resolves performance gaps to improve backup times
• Correlates reported errors to specific degrading components
• Automates method of ensuring continued readability of long-idle media (requires ArchiveVerify optional feature)
• Provides audit trail for industries with regulatory compliance mandates (requires ArchiveVerify optional feature)
• Pinpoints key patterns and complex relationships that can impact system behavior, saving on operation and capital expenses (requires ReadVerify Advanced Reporting optional feature)
• Delivers long-range data view to help project future budget and system needs

A tape library, with its associated drives and media, represents a significant investment in a corporate data center’s disaster recovery and archive infrastructure. However, while storage applications provide feedback on the success or failure of a data transfer, little information is available on resource efficiency or root cause failure isolation.

Data transfer failures and tape errors can be the result of a complex mix of issues relating to the tape drives, media, network and applications, and can increase risks to data, system down time and budget impacts. With today’s IT departments operating with fewer personnel, tighter budgets and shorter cycles, effective tape monitoring is a vital key to managing costs, preserving data integrity and maintaining system reliability.

Crossroads ReadVerify Appliance provides full visibility into the utilization, performance and health of the tape drives and media in a tape library environment. The detailed insight provided by ReadVerify Appliance can lead to operational improvements by helping to complete backup jobs on time, minimize purchases of unnecessary resources and prevent premature wear of overused resources. ReadVerify Appliance collects data directly from the tape drives and library during data transactions, without impacting the storage applications.