HP Announces Industry's First One-Button Disaster-Recovery Feature for Tape-Backup Solutions; the Easiest-to-Use Disaster-Recovery Solution in the Industry

Business Wire, April 5, 1999

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 1999-- Hewlett-Packard Company today announced the industry's first one-button disaster-recovery feature for its HP SureStore DAT8 and DAT24 backup solutions. The new one-button disaster-recovery feature enables organizations to recover all data, software and system configurations using only the most recent backup cartridge. It eliminates the need for complicated, software-based disaster-recovery procedures.

Beginning in May, HP's one-button disaster-recovery feature is slated to be incorporated into all HP SureStore DAT8 and HP SureStore DAT24 tape drives and to be supported by HP NetServer E Series systems, HP NetServer LC systems and HP Kayak PC Workstations. Backup software that supports one-button disaster recovery is required to use this feature. Compatible software currently includes HP's in-box tape-backup software -- HP Colorado Backup II and Stac Software's Replica Single Server for HP SureStore Tape -- as well as Computer Associate's ARCserve IT and Seagate Software's Backup Exec.

"This is a very exciting step forward," said Jack Trautman, general manager of HP Computer Peripherals Bristol. "IT Disaster recovery is a critical part of a business' survival plan, yet it can often be a complex procedure absorbing an IT department's time and resources. Now, however, we are able to offer businesses an amazingly straightforward and robust solution. This is truly an industry first."

"The usability trials we ran clearly showed HP's one-button disaster-recovery feature to be exactly the type of feature businesses have been looking for," said Jim McKenzie, joint partner of Human Applications, the independent usability consulting firm that performed the HP-commissioned trials. "Many organizations don't have the luxury of dedicated IT departments and are at a real disadvantage when it comes to things like disaster recovery. This innovative feature means that reliable disaster recovery is now within reach of all businesses."

Previously, organizations had to prepare a separate set of disaster-recovery floppy disks or CDs in order to recover their systems. These disks had to be stored safely and updated each time the IT system was altered or the configuration changed. With HP's one-button disaster recovery, these processes are no longer required. Instead, specially designed firmware on the tape drive allows it to act as a bootable CD-ROM and initiates the disaster-recovery process using simply the latest backup cartridge.

In practice, system configurations are relatively dynamic due to micro-changes in a business' environment, such as the addition of new disks or new user data volumes, changes in access privileges -- the list is virtually endless. HP's one-button disaster-recovery feature radically simplifies the system-restore procedure because the backup not only records user data files but also records the system configuration at every backup.

System restoration is extremely easy because only one piece of media -- the most recent backup cartridge -- is used. The recovery process is triggered by simply inserting the latest backup cartridge, holding down the eject button on the tape drive and powering up the tape drive and computer. The HP SureStore DAT tape drive then carries out a full-system restore. First, it acts as a bootable CD-ROM, restoring the operating system and backup software information. It then reverts to normal tape-drive functionality and restores the remaining system and user data files.

Availability

The HP one-button disaster-recovery feature is expected to be included on HP SureStore DAT8 and HP SureStore DAT24 drives beginning in May.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 122,800 employees and had revenue of $47.1 billion in its 1998 fiscal year.

Information about HP, its products and the company's Year 2000 program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.