Double-Take releases new workload optimisation tools

Double-Take is expanding beyond its data replication roots

Double-Take Software is expanding its workload optimisation line-up with a new suite of tools to help IT administrators move, back up and protect server-based workloads inside datacentres.

Announced today, the Workload Optimisation suite consists of four tools, two of which - Double-Take Flex and Double-Take Move - are available immediately. The other two - Double-Take Backup and Double-Take Availability - are set to ship later in the year, while some of their capabilities are already provided in existing Double-Take products.

Double-Take Move enables firms to migrate Windows workloads from one server to another, whether the source or destination is a physical system or a virtual machine (P2P, P2V, V2P or V2V migration). The firm claimed that its software can do this without disruption to service, and can even migrate workloads from one virtual environment to another.

"We can take a virtual machine from VMware infrastructure and migrate it to a Microsoft Hyper-V environment. This makes us unique, as not many rivals support migration between different virtualisation platforms," said Ian Masters, UK country manager for Double-Take.

This capability should prove useful during mergers and acquisitions, Masters said, when companies will increasingly have infrastructure based on different virtualisation technologies.

Drawing on Double-Take's experience in high-availability technologies enables migrations to be performed while users remain logged in and working, Masters claimed. Double-Take Move can also migrate workloads as easily across a wide area network connection as to a server in the same rack, he said.

Double-Take Move is licensed at £376 for a single use, but other options include volume discounts for customers looking at the tool for large-scale migration projects.

Double-Take Flex, meanwhile, enables server or client systems to boot up from any iSCSI storage area network (SAN) rather than a local hard disk. This centralises image management and simplifies the provisioning of new systems, according to the firm.

The tool uses a single management console from which an administrator can control storage management and booting, and can turn storage on any Windows server into an iSCSI SAN.

Double-Take Flex Server costs £2,272 including one year's maintenance, and an 'agent' is required for each system that boots from it. Agents cost £300 per server and £72 per desktop, which also includes a year's maintenance.

Double-Take said that backup and high-availability products are already available in the shape of its existing Livewire, TimeData and GeoCluster brands. These products are to be folded into new Double-Take Backup and Double-Take Availability tools later this year to round out the firm's Workload Optimisation suite.