Software-defined copy data management (CDM) vendor Catalogic Software Inc. had broadened its support for flash storage arrays with the addition of Pure Storage Inc.’s FlashArray //m series. Catalogic and Pure Storage plan to jointly deliver a CDM package that addresses problem of the profusion of database copies.

The joint packaged product, which will be available late next month, allows users to track and manage the creation and use of all copies of data in the environment.  That means IT teams can reduce the capacity devoted to copy data and give business users self-service control via application program interfaces (APIs).

Pure Storage is one of the most visible of the recent group of all-flash storage vendors that has risen to challenge the dominance of disk stalwarts like EMC and NetApp Inc. It was one of the few enterprise tech startups to go public last year in an IPO that was widely seen as a referendum on the broader market. It has struggled since, however, in line with the disappointing performance of other pure-flash vendors. Multiple lawsuits by EMC haven’t helped. Nevertheless, Pure Storage is seen as a standard-bearer for its market, and Catalogic executives said the partnership is a watershed for both companies.

Catalogic says its ECX Copy Data Management Platform can reduce enterprise storage costs by an average of 20 percent to 40 percent by automating copy management using the snapshot and replication technologies of existing storage and virtual infrastructure rather than dedicated equipment. Its ECX CDM product is a software-only orchestration platform that works with the native Pure Storage FlashArray FlashRecover Snapshot and Replication functionality via the FlashArray REST API Pure Storage features to allow IT to set and manage policies for data copies while maintaining a master catalog for IT control.

The company, which was formed when Syncsort Inc.  sold its data protection business to an investor group in 2013, is addressing what International Data Corp. recently said is a growing cost of storage for copies of production data that the research firm estimates will rise to more than $50 billion by 2018. IT organizations make an average of eight to 12 copies of each production database for purposes ranging from development to backup to analytics. These copies not only tax storage resources, but consume staff time and create versioning problems that can lead to multiple variations of the same data.

“The storage industry has done a terrible job of dealing with the problem of multiple copies because they were making money at it,” said David Vellante, chief research analyst at Wikibon. Companies like Actifio Inc. have emerged to solve this problem. “Catalogic has taken a different approach: leave your copy management processes in place,” Vellante said. “You’ve already paid for them. It’s less intrusive and less invasive than a lot of the solutions out there.”

Catalogic is installed as a VMware vApp and automatically discovers existing databases, builds a catalog and discovers the lineage of the data. It provides a policy engine for making and using copies. The software taps in to published APIs, which means it can take advantage of the native features of whatever platform is connected. “Our guys put together a solid development framework with REST APIs that makes it possible for us to support friendly and not-so-friendly vendors,” said Ken Barth, who was recently installed as CEO , replacing Ed Walsh, who left for a top storage job at IBM.

Among the not-so-friendly vendors is EMC, which offers copy management products for its XtremIO and Unity flash arrays. Barth said his company’s software can still work seamlessly with any functions EMC exposes through APIs. The relationship with Pure Storage, which is an arch EMC competitor, was more collaborative, with the companies working together to optimize integration.

Catalogic has been steadily expanding the range of platforms it supports. In addition to Pure Storage, the roster now includes NetApp Inc.’s 7-Mode, Clustered Ontap, NetApp Private Storage (NPS), Cloud Ontap and FlexPod; IBM Storwize, SAN Volume Controller, v9000, VersaStack and Flash Copy Manager; and EMC Unity and VNXe.

ECX also integrates with Oracle and Microsoft SQL database management systems. Its “in-place” CDM approach enables applications to be tested and developed on a storage stack that is identical to the production version without impacting daily operations.

Wikibon Chief Technology Officer, David Floyer was an early proponent of flash storage, forecasting in 2008 that it would supplant disk as the preferred enterprise storage medium by 2017. One advantage of flash is that it does not require full database copies to be made for non-production use. Rather, it uses smaller and more-efficient “snapshots” that point to production data.

But snapshots are not a panacea, Floyer explained. “System administrators are experiencing significant challenges in adequately managing the greatly increased number of copies, and there are significant provenance and compliance exposures to the business,” he said in a statement. “The catalog solution from Catalogic allows enterprises to realized greater use of and value from copies, with lower physical space, faster time to copy and faster time to data value.”

Catalogic doesn’t publish its pricing, but says it uses a simple model based on the storage controller and the number of virtual machines. “We’re usually a fraction of the cost of appliance solutions,” said Vice President of Marketing Tom Grave.

Pure and Catalogic will demonstrate the integrated catalog next week at VMworld in Catalogic’s booth 721 and Pure Storage’s booth 923.

Image courtesy Catalogic