Advantages of using SFW's Quick Recovery solution:

• Faster than Restoring from Tape or Other Media

  On-host snapshot recovery is faster than restoring a full backup from tape or other media; this reduces downtime and helps meet service-level agreements for application availability. A Quick Recovery solution serves as a first line of defense to recover a corrupted database or missing data. The impact on system performance of maintaining a Quick Recovery image is limited to the brief time of detaching a split-mirror snapshot from its original volume.

• A Less Costly and More Flexible Solution than Array-based Snapshots

  SFW's split-mirror snapshots are based on the FlashSnap technology. FlashSnap puts the snapshot logic on the host system itself, so you can use any storage you have or might acquire to create snapshots. This is in contrast to a split-mirror image created through a hardware storage array, where you are limited to only the storage provided by the array vendor.

  FlashSnap provides several benefits over a hardware-based approach:

  • You can use virtually any storage hardware to create snapshots, including expensive arrays and simple JBOD storage.

  • The volumes that are copied can span physical devices.

  • The original and snapshot volumes can use different vendors' storage arrays.

• Integration with Microsoft Server Volume Shadow Copy Service

  SFW integrates with the Windows Server Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) as both a VSS requestor and a VSS provider. This integration is provided by FlashSnap and SFW's vxsnap command line utility and VSS Snapshot wizards. The VSS process enables a VSS-aware application, such as SQL Server, to be quiesced before the snapshot operation occurs and then resumed immediately after it. This pause of the application can produce Microsoft supported and guaranteed snapshots of your data. It protects the integrity of your data.

• Allows Multiple Snapshots at One Time

  SFW offers the option to create simultaneous, multiple split-mirror snapshots. These snapshots can be done either through the GUI Snap Shot command or through the vxsnap CLI command.