Axxana's slogan reads, "Built to last," and with its latest Phoenix data backup system, it may very well survive with the cockroaches in a nuclear holocaust. While that may be somewhat of an over-exaggeration, Axxana built its Phoenix Black Box device to withstand crazy external pressures while keeping close to its 100-percent data integrity claim. That means it can withstand 482F-degree temperatures for six hours straight without losing precious data, or withstand 30 feet of water pressure before buckling and giving up the digital ghost.

However, the Phoenix Black Box is only part of the overall system. Many large corporations protect their data by backing up to a secondary data center, usually somewhere remote. Depending on the overall backup investment, said corporations either imply synchronous replication spanning short distances (thereby resulting in close to 100-percent data integrity with both sides writing the same data), or asynchronous replication that spans across a great distance (and suffers loss of critical data if the second site doesn't finish writing data). The former system costs quite a lot of money to keep the data untainted; the latter is cost effective but has trouble keeping data consistent between the primary and secondary data centers.

The Phoenix System provides a means to alleviate data loss in any asynchronous replication environment by inserting several tools. The Phoenix Black Box itself is installed at the main site and holds the recorded data. The Phoenix Collector, also installed at the main site, processes the data collected from the main storage system, encrypts the data, and then stores a synchronous data stream onto the Black Box's flash memory array (SSD). Data can be extracted either by using a laptop with installed Axxana software, or through a "highly resilient" cellular broadband connection from the Black Box to the Phoenix Recoverer installed at the remote site.

The Phoenix Black Box actually features several connections. For the laptop, it provides a 100 MB/sec protected Ethernet port that allows post disaster data extraction to the mobile device. Additionally, it utilizes protected batteries that enable six hours of data transmission over a cellular network via three redundant protected antennas and a CDMA/GSM 3G protected transmitter. The Black Box also offers a 2 Gb/sec. protected FC port.

Ultimately, the Phoenix System transforms an asynchronous system into a synchronous system without a hefty, costly upgrade--although the company was mum on pricing. Axxana said the system connects into "the fabric" without causing any disruptions, and is designed to be compatible with all major storage vendors' replication systems. "It cost effectively transforms any asynchronous replication into a synchronous form, delivering a complete solution that guarantees zero data loss (RPO=0) over any distance at no additional cost or in many cases decreased cost," the company said.

As for the Phoenix Black Box storage features, its system specs are quite impressive. Weighing at a hefty 436 lbs, the device measures 38-inches in height, 27-inches in width, and 48-inches in depth. The Black Box also provides 72 GB to 300 GB of removable Flash memory, up to 200 MB/sec. data transfers, up to 17,000 IOPs, and even protects up to 4096 independent volumes. However, the specs really get crazy, as the Black Box can withstand water pressure at 30 feet, 5000 lbs of weight, 40 G of shock, and can even withstand 2000F-degree temperatures for an hour.

Based on the name alone, Axxana designed the Black Box to mimic those devices stored on airplanes, built to withstand local disasters such as power outages, flooding, building fires, to regional and widespread disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and even terror situations. The company didn't specify whether the Black Box could withstand a nuclear explosion, however if it did, there probably wouldn't be anyone around to extract its data save for the mutated cockroaches.

Axxana claims its product can even handle "terror"-ist attacks.

Source : Tom's Hardware US