Those uses may include rapid application recovery, testing, development, data analytics, reporting, data staging or any off-host processing tasks where conventional copy technologies like backup and snapshots had previously been used, a company spokesperson said.

Unlike traditional snapshot or point-in-time technology, InfiniView's virtual views do not require additional storage space, are not tied to a particular file system, volume manager, operating system, storage array, or application.

They can be instantly created and utilized by multiple servers or applications at the same time—all while remaining a self-contained function offered from within one or more standard, out-of-band appliances, the spokesperson said.

InfiniView is an extension of the Fremont, Calif.-based company's RecoveryONE software, which continuously and transparently captures all changes to enterprise application environments and instantly makes available copies of production data from any previous point in time.

"With InfiniView, we are able to go back to when a disruption happened, then snapshot the system the way it was up to one second before the problem happened," Mendocino vice president of marketing Eric Burgener told eWEEK. "So the amount of data lost is most often minimal."

Click here to read more about HP's storage deal with Mendocino.

Uses for InfiniView include:

• Test environments: Current virtual views of production data, including application binaries and data, are used to perform patch validation prior to release into production.

• Development : Teams can develop and test their own code in progress against actual views of production data.

• Data analytics and reporting: Data warehouse and reporting environments can be more rapidly loaded with views of the most current production data. This enables an increased frequency of data warehouse refreshes by providing the flexibility to instantly create usable copies of production database data without impacting online business operations.

• Audit operations and compliance: Multiple views of the same time period, such as month-end financial data taken at a certain time, can be created, re-created and retained for audit or compliance reporting activities, where needed.

• Data staging: Off-host backup activities can run in the background without disrupting production applications and be managed automatically via InfiniView policies that first create the latest view of production data, then initiate third-party software to run a specific backup job or routine against that view.

Mendocino sells its software for rebranding to most of the major players in the storage space, including EMC, NetApp, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Symantec-Veritas and Hewlett-Packard.

"Mendocino has an excellent vision about the need for and use of copies of production data in enterprise environments, and is solving the problem of providing instant, transparent access to the desired versions of this data across the application and storage groups that need it," said Frank Harbist, vice president and general manager, Information Life Cycle Management and Storage Software, Storageworks Division, HP.

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Mendocino also said Nov. 21 that it has signed a reseller agreement with Dynamic Systems that will deliver InfiniView-based solutions in data protection, administration and maintenance, built around Sun Microsystems hardware and software, to agencies within the government market.

Dynamic Systems is the largest Sun government reseller on the U.S. West Coast and has focused on providing information technology infrastructure solutions to the government market for the past 15 years.

Pricing and availability

Software solutions built around InfiniView platform technology are available from Mendocino now, with entry-level pricing starting around $50,000.

InfiniView-based packages also will be available to customers via Mendocino's key OEM and other distribution partnerships in the HP, IBM and Sun channel.

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