Woburn, MA.  – July 8, 2008 – A new archiving product from BridgeHead Software can help the channel address the backup and storage cost problems their customers are facing as a result of rapidly increasing Microsoft SharePoint data.


“SharePoint is Microsoft’s fastest selling server based product and our conversations with customers tell us that there’s now a growing opportunity for resellers to help users with SharePoint archiving,” said Steve Matheson, Vice President of North American Sales, BridgeHead Software.


“As much as 70 per cent of the content of a typical SharePoint system consists of rarely accessed older items, including early versions of documents that quickly pile up as teams of users collaborate on document creation.  Our BH ShareStore archiving software automatically moves inactive SharePoint data from expensive primary storage systems to a range of secondary media where it is managed and kept accessible to end users.”


By cutting data volumes held on Tier 1 storage, BH ShareStore helps optimize users’ storage hardware spend while permitting faster backups that tie up fewer IT resources.  It also means restores can be completed more quickly in the event of disaster.


“Unlike other SharePoint archiving systems, ShareStore is specifically designed to optimize backup which is one of the biggest headaches that customers tell us they are facing right now.  When static data is moved away from the primary store, the system’s advanced media management features let it create multiple copies in multiple locations at the same time.  This data doesn’t then need to be repeatedly backed up or replicated. In effect we’ve created a self protecting archive.  The user now only needs to backup the smaller volume of active data that remains on primary storage,” added Jamie Clifton, Business Development Director, EDA, For BridgeHead Software.


The system does not restrict users to specific secondary media to create the archive, allowing organizations to maximize their existing storage infrastructure investments.  The BH ShareStore archive can be held on any combination of media including low cost disk, CAS storage and off line media.


The end users’ experience is unaffected by the fact that the data they are viewing could be held in the archive.  They see and can access the archived data within SharePoint as if it were still present in the primary system.


“We felt it was particularly important to maximize any benefits of the SharePoint tagging information which end users attribute to documents to define their value and usefulness.  This information is carried over into the archive so that the archiving process can be defined by what the end user considers useful to know about a piece of content ” said Clifton.


The tagging information and metadata related to documents can be used to create detailed management policies within ShareStore to control archived data in line with compliance, corporate governance or operational requirements.  This includes setting rules on issues such as data retention periods, protection, encryption and access rights and final deletion at end of life.


“The media management features within BH ShareStore mean the software can automatically control where data is held and how it is managed in the archive throughout its lifetime – as its importance, business value or compliance status changes,” explained Clifton.


BH ShareStore archiving software is available as a point solution for quick installation by our resellers It can also be sold on a modular basis as part of a ‘one-stop’ archiving solution that can be expanded to take in other information, including a wide range of unstructured data from applications as Witt concluded: “By helping your customers use BH ShareStore as part of a bigger one stop archiving solution, you can help them start to enjoy a real critical mass in terms of the data in their archive and its effect on minimizing storage hardware costs and optimizing backup and restore.  By creating a centralized archive, rather than multiple separate archives for individual data categories or business areas, customers can benefit from management efficiencies by streamlining and simplifying processes, cutting complexity and duplication and improving control.”

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