Geminare Brings Archive Indexing to the Public Cloud

Geminare has announced a new version of its cloud archiving software that includes an indexing engine that can be integrated with major public cloud storage platforms.

The newly announced Cloud Storage Assurance 2.0 (CSA 2.0) platform is an archiving engine that, according to Geminare CEO Joshua Geist, is the first auditable backup and archiving product that can be integrated with the public cloud..

Cloud Storage Assurance 2.0 offers integrity assurance of stored cloud data by applying a unique key identifier to each file, email record and access session. This allows users to authenticate data within any public or private storage cloud. An audit log tracks downloads from the archived storage environment and provides a unique CSA 2.0 receipt. Altered historical files within the cloud are easily identified through mismatched keys.

The software also gives users a variety of options for automatically archiving email and file server data and customizable search engine interfaces.

In addition, CSA 2.0 provides a REST-based open API kit that provides customers, partners and developers with the ability to write custom query integrations into applications such as eDiscovery and compliance auditing tools.

Geminare has experienced success over the past few years selling its Recovery-as-a-Service solutions for the small to midsize enterprise (SME) sector, recruiting a number of hosting companies, Telcos and VARs as white label partners along the way.

For instance, CA’s Instant Recovery On Demand service is based on Geminare’s Cloud Recovery Server Replication service.

The company’s Cloud Recovery Server Replication service replicates a customer’s server environment in real-time to a cloud vendor of choice and has the ability to fail back from the cloud during system interruption or failure.

Geist said the combination of Geminare Server Replication and CSA 2.0 gives SMEs a business continuity platform with automatic archiving, search functions and built-in audit capabilities – all without any capital investment. He said CSA 2.0 also removes the possibility of vendor lock-in.

“Customers need technologies that allow them to store data in a compliant fashion. By tagging the data within any public cloud, we make it possible to migrate from one cloud provider to another without modifying the index,” said Geist.

The CSA 2.0 software is available as a standalone managed service, or as an add-on to the Geminare Cloud Recovery service, and can run on private or public cloud platforms. Geist said pricing for CSA 2.0 “is in the hundreds of dollars per month” with a per-gigabyte price of approximately $2.00.

The software supports most major file server platforms including Microsoft Windows, Linux and UNIX and natively supports Microsoft Exchange servers through the journaling capability. CSA 2.0 also supports other mail server platforms and versions including both hosted and on-premise installations.

As for the cloud, CSA 2.0 supports Amazon S3, Atmos Partners, the Iron Mountain Archive Service, and more.

The software is available through Geminare’s Technology Partners, a network of cloud hosting and Telco providers, MSPs and VARs. Geminare’s current roster of partners includes Qwest Communications, Hosting.com, Bell Canada, CA Technologies Inc.

For more on eDiscovery and cloud computing, see Taneja Group analyst Christine Taylor’s recent column, “Hosting eDiscovery in the Cloud: Know What You’re Getting”.

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