Catalogic Software, a provider of software-defined copy data management (CDM), has released ECX 2.4, the newest version of its software platform that adds Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server application-aware integration, support for EMC Unity storage, native support for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and deepening integration with popular DevOps tools.
With its software products, Catalogic helps clients manage, orchestrate and analyze their copy data across their enterprise and cloud in support of mission-critical IT functions, including disaster recovery, test/dev, DevOps, next-generation data protection, and business analytics.
ECX is designed to leverage the snapshot and replication technologies of the existing storage and virtual infrastructure in a customer environment, providing an in-place CDM approach that, it says, has advantages over alternatives because it requires no additional infrastructure for the customer to purchase and manage, and leverages the existing production environment rather than requiring the creation of new copies of data. This is important in database environments where the databases need to remain online and accessible continuously, and where the data volumes make the creation of extra copies untenable.
ECX 2.4 delivers deep integration for both Oracle and SQL, allowing customers to leverage their existing infrastructure to further expand their ability to eliminate copy sprawl, while improving their capabilities to deliver fresh copies of key databases to those functions and business units that demand them, according to Ed Walsh, CEO of Catalogic. At the same time, Catalogic is providing advancements in ECX’s capabilities for both hybrid cloud and DevOps—two initiatives that its customers are pursuing, he noted.
With its application-aware integration with Oracle and SQL database management systems, ECX delivers a CDM solution for mission critical database environments, helping to solve the database sprawl problem that many organizations struggle with today.
According to Catalogic, it’s common for an enterprise to have more than 200 database instances and have more than 10 copies of each database, creating an unwieldy amount of copy data that wastes capital and operational costs. The enhanced database features in ECX 2.4, including data masking, integrated pre- and post-scripting and log management, serve to eliminate the copy sprawl problem and simplify managing, tracking and accessing database copies, the company says.
The addition of integrated AWS S3 storage support enables ECX copy policies to now be directed to AWS S3 destinations, giving ECX customers the option to extend the management and use of data to the public cloud while maintaining full control and orchestration through the centralized CDM platform. This is one of several hybrid cloud use cases where ECX allows customers to extend the creation and management of copy data to the cloud without changing existing processes and methodologies.
With this release, Catalogic ECX supports the EMC Unity product line ECX 2.4 and also adds support for the EMC Unity Family of storage arrays, including Unity 300, 400, 500, 600 (All-Flash and Hybrid Flash) and EMC Unity VSA.
Catalogic also continues to offer IT organizations new ways to enable DevOps development methodologies. Adding to the already available ECX ability to drive “infrastructure as code” using enterprise storage arrays, the new release includes a plug-in for the DevOps tool Puppet, allowing Puppet users to directly manage and deploy live operating environments that include the use of a copy of the relevant application data, entirely through the Puppet console using native Puppet commands. The Puppet plug-in is one of a series of new add-ons via the Catalogic ECX Marketplace, a new online store for sharing and downloading new capabilities.
Catalogic ECX is also available now as a development tool on the IBM Bluemix Garage, giving developers an easy means to access system-of-record infrastructure without affecting production environments.
For more information, go to the ECX 2.4 Datasheet and the company website at www.catalogicsoftware.com.