INRANGE Announces Support for IBM PPRC and PPRC-XD

INRANGE Technologies today announced that the INRANGE IN-VSN(TM) 9801 Series has been enhanced with additional functionality and has successfully completed interoperability testing with IBM’s TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server for Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy (PPRC) and new Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy Extended Distance (PPRC-XD) software, enabling users to mirror IBM storage devices across the WAN at continental distances with better performance than previously supported by INRANGE.

“Instantaneous access to mission-critical data is vital, whether to ensure business continuity, to perform data migrations, or to extend Storage Area Networks over greater distances,” noted Dan Raup, vice president of product marketing at INRANGE. “Supporting IBM’s PPRC and PPRC-XD software expands INRANGE’s leadership position in developing distance extension technologies for storage devices enabling users to create truly virtual storage networks, where data is available and accessible at all times.”

In concert with INRANGE’s Virtual Storage Networking (IN-VSN) strategy, the 9801 allows joint INRANGE and IBM customers to utilize PPRC and PPRC-XD software over several WAN interfaces and transport data at continental distances. This capability is ideal for users needing to provide a long distance remote site point-in-time disaster recovery capability for business continuance, to perform data migrations and to achieve application load leveling. In addition to offering users greater choice and flexibility, the 9801 compresses large volumes of data enabling users to minimize transmission costs and optimize bandwidth utilization.

Through the solution offered by INRANGE, users can extend IBM storage across mainframe or open system environments by replicating critical data securely across the enterprise via the 9801 to remote IBM storage systems. This enhanced, long distance networking capability reduces the cost and complexity of protecting vital information and also provides rapid access to data, database applications such as DB2, web mirroring, data warehousing, and other key applications.

“Storage and WANs are converging quickly, driven by the need to ensure that mission-critical information is universally accessible at all times,” said Jim Kelly, vice president marketing, IBM Storage Products Division. “As today’s enterprise IT infrastructures become more heterogeneous and users demand greater levels of availability, it is vital to provide users with solutions to extend mainframe and open systems environments. INRANGE continues to provide key benefits for customers, providing them with greater networking options to design highly available, extended storage networks.”

In related news, CNT today also announced that it has successfully completed interoperability testing between its UltraNet Storage Director product and PPRC-XD software.