| Sprint, Cisco and Hitachi Data Systems claim joint IT continuity breakthrough Sprint, along with Hitachi Data Systems and strategic alliance partner Cisco, is claiming to have made a technical breakthrough that could have major implications on how customers deploy effective IT continuity strategies. The telecommunications giant, along with its partners, has successfully tested asynchronous data replication over an IP network, using Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) technology at a distance of more than 3,600 miles. For customers, this proof-of-concept demonstration serves as a meaningful example of long-distance business continuity solutions that they can deploy using technologies that are available today. "This could enable customers to replicate their mission critical data at extremely remote locations while using their existing cost-effective IP connections, further protecting them from potential disasters that could occur at a company's headquarters," said Oliver Valente, vice president of Technology Development at Sprint. "Government regulations, for example, may soon require some companies, especially in the financial and healthcare markets, to be able to replicate their data at out-of-region locations. Until now, feasible distances for remote replication using this technology were typically in the 37- to 45-mile range, more of a metro-area scenario." The demonstration was conducted using an FCIP connection originating from a Sprint lab located in Overland Park, Kan. Optical cross-connect devices at Sprint's Burlingame, Calif., lab created a continuous loop back to the Overland Park lab, simulating a point-to-point FCIP connection spanning 3,600 miles. The equipment used to create the link included private Sprint circuits, the Cisco MDS 9000 storage area network (SAN) switches with the Cisco MDS 9000 IP Storage Services modules and Hitachi Freedom Storage Lightning 9900 V Series systems, running Hitachi TrueCopy data replication software. "Cisco has always viewed FCIP as an enabling technology for cost-effective business continuity and disaster recovery solutions, especially over extended, wide-area distances," said Soni Jiandani, vice president of marketing for the Storage Technology Group at Cisco. "This demo is real-world proof of the value that network transport technologies such as FCIP can deliver in extending SAN traffic well beyond the data centre environment."
•Date:
9th July 2003 • Region: N.America / Worldwide
•Type: Article •Topic:
IT continuity
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