Double-Take Software Extends Support for VMware; Companies can Obtain Replication for $500 Per VM

Vendors that have largely staked their entire livelihood around building software based on the Microsoft Windows operating system now face a less certain future as the corporate adoption of server virtualization and VMware begins. While the Microsoft Windows operating system is not going anywhere, VMware is taking center stage in more corporate plans and data center budgets for 2008 and beyond. So it is should come as no surprise that Double-Take Software (NASDAQ: DBTK) continues to enhance its Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure product line to directly address this ongoing corporate adoption of VMware.

Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure 3.0 differs from the Double-Take for Windows product line in the following ways:

• It uses no agents. Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure software is installed on a Windows server, physical or virtual and communicates with source and target VMware ESX servers via SSH.
• It creates snapshots on the source VMware ESX server and replicates them to the target ESX server. Using VMware's native snapshot API, Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure creates snapshots on the source ESX server of the *.vmdk, *-flat.vmdk and *.vmx files and ships them to the target ESX.
• It replicates data on a scheduled basis, not continually. Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure replicates data based on a schedule set by the administrator. Administrators configure replication to occur as frequently as every 15 minutes or when the log file that tracks changes on the source ESX server fills up (maximum log file size is 32 MB).
• It is designed to meet the replication needs of second tier applications. Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure is designed to meet the requirements of web and file servers which generally do not need point-in-time recoveries that applications like Microsoft Exchange or SharePoint possess.
• It offers selectable routes and manageable bandwidth by virtual machine (VM). If the source ESX server has multiple network cards, administrators can select which network card Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure uses on the source ESX server to route the replication traffic to the target server. This can help ensure regular replication of the data and keep replication traffic separate from normal network activity. Administrators can further control how much data each VM sends by limiting the amount of network bandwidth it can access.

Yet because Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure is not the same product as Double-Take for Windows, companies should exercise some caution when deploying the VMware Infrastructure product. One major difference is that Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure currently can not guarantee the consistency of application data that it replicates. While this is generally not a big deal when replicating file and web server data, if using this product to replicate any type of database, it cannot guarantee database recoverability.

The upshot of this latest version of Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure is that it continues to makes the cost of replication affordable and accessible to a wider number of corporate applications. Unlike Double-Take for Windows that retails at $3200 per server ($6400 for a managed replication pair), Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure is licensed at $500 per VM so companies can create a replication pair on a source and target ESX server for about $1000.

The latest enhancements found in Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure 3.0 demonstrates that Double-Take Software is committed to extending support to operating systems outside of its traditional Microsoft Windows base with VMware most specifically in its sights. While Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure does not provide the same levels of functionality as the more robust Double-Take for Windows, Double-Take Software is properly positioning the product and has made the appropriate downward adjustments in price to reflect its functionality. This lower price coupled with its agentless architecture contribute to make Double-Take for VMware Infrastructure a viable alternative for businesses seeking to do replication that do not want to tie themselves to a specific hardware platform.