In Phase 2, Softek proposed that the Replicator system be extended across a WAN to a SuperGigantic store, built out to serve as a DR backup site. This was an interesting idea, if a bit naive: Seeing as Softek's parent company, Fujitsu, sells POS (point of sale) systems, it should have known that the only thing more expensive than data centers is retail space. The profitability of a retail or grocery store is directly proportional to the amount of square feet allocated to merchandise, so one could foresee store personnel beginning to fill IT recovery-center space with overstocked bananas and canned meat products.
Wherever the recovery site was located, some direct-attached arrays and servers would be installed in Phase 2. Softek proposed that its Storage Manager software then be added, both to scrub the data before replicating it through the enterprise and to manage the replication processes together with other aspects of the storage environment.
In Phase 3, Darwin's would deploy a SAN and use Replicator to migrate data from direct-attached storage to the new topology. The company would implement Softek SANView to manage the SAN, Softek Provisioner to perform heterogeneous LUN management and, optionally, Softek EnView to manage QoS (Quality of Service) and service-level compliance.
The writers at Softek seemed to get the message that Darwin's wanted to keep costs low while replicating a sizable amount of data locally and remotely. Softek's Replicator leverages existing infrastructure and low-cost build-out options, and supports existing IP networks between locations. Vendor-agnostic, the solution precludes any hardware lock-in.
The only missing ingredient was a provision for security in stored data. This was more than compensated for, however, by the detailed and eminently forthright discussion of the need for data hygiene and testing methodology. Rolling out the proposed solution seemed extraordinarily simple. Two days of professional services would probably be required for Phase 1, at a cost of $5,000. The Replicator Server implementation would come out to $11,500 for a four-processor server license and $1,170 per year in maintenance. The cost of additional local disk and server hardware was not addressed.
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