I have been reviewing the x510 Data Vault for the past several weeks, and I have come away seeing the potential of this product to deliver a powerful, yet simple storage solution to small businesses.
The Data Vault is built on two things: the Microsoft Windows Home Server (WHS) software and hardware by HP.
This is the third of three StorageWorks Data Vault reviews.
The SmallBizWindows HP StorageWorks x510 Data Vault Review #3
Scenario 3: Backing up servers and clients at a medium business with rapidly changing data.
For our final review scenario on the HP StorageWorks x510 Data Vault, I decided to try the Data Vault in a mid-size company of about 90 employees, with rapidly-changing data.
I selected BMCG, a California-based home theater, satellite TV, and home security installation company
BMCG has three distinct OUs, and eighty-four employees in a single location in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley.
Unlike previous scenarios, this company was selected because it has seven servers, a couple of on-site Logikworx management servers, and the business owner’s desktop, among others. Moreover, the company has a lot of rapidly-changing information, from orders coming in, to several iteration of designs for home theater installations. It was also selected because it has been one of our most difficult clients in terms of complying with our backup rules, almost always backing up data only on the weekend to the Ultrium tapes
I took the StorageWorks x510 Data Vault to the company premises and connected it to the network there.
All servers there Windows Server 2003-based (soon to be Server 2008 R2 once LOB apps are validated for that OS), and our management assets there are running Windows 7, as are all the client systems at the company.
Staying with the Windows Home Server license restriction of 10 attached devices, I installed the Home Server software on the owner’s Windows 7 desktop, our management server, , and the seven servers in use.
Smooth, error-free install. As expected.
For this scenario, I wanted to see if the x510 Data Vault could work unobtrusively within the company, not slowing down, or reducing the responsiveness of the servers.
Resultantly, I set the initial backup time for BMCG to be 6.15 AM, a time I knew the servers would be busy, with managers assigning tasks, pulling products from inventory, etc.
No such error, the x510 breezed through.
Throughout the review period there, there weren’t any issues with the data vault.
The HP StorageWorks x510 Data Vault just worked.
Conclusions 
However, this is a hardy solution.
The close-coupling of a well thought out, extensible backup operating system (oxymoron?) and a superior hardware solution is a boon to not just the businesses that use them, but to the VARs and solution providers that place them, as they reduce the chances of a catastrophic data failure.
Furthermore, for those clients that seem to go into a brain fog whenever backups are required, this removed the need for constant nagging.
This is an Absolute Best product.
Hmmm, if only I can get HP to develop an RDX autoloader….
