While disaster recovery is a prime concern, many companies are seeking ways to avoid disaster. Confronted by a slew of data-retention regulations, companies have turned to technology to help them ensure compliance. Cambridge, MA-based Permabit Inc.'s Permeon Compliance Vault (PCV) 1.2 answers the call by providing an effective way to lock down corporate data and rein in compliance costs.

At the heart of PCV is content-addressable storage (CAS) technology, which breaks data into chunks and then uses hashing algorithms to give each chunk a unique identifier. These chunks of data are retained in their original state and can't be altered or duplicated; digital certificates can be used to prove the data hasn't been changed. PCV works with any storage hardware, turning any type of disk media into secure write once, ready many (WORM) storage.

Fault tolerance is built in, with the ability to replicate protected data to other locations. As PCV secures data, it also distributes it across available disks to balance the load and provide fast retrieval.

Calling Permabit "one of the leaders in this space," one judge extolled PCV's "outstanding ease of use, and exceptional CAS and data protection integration." With a starting price of $25,000 for a 2TB configuration, plus $12,500 for each additional 1TB increment, PCV offers an inexpensive route to compliance that can leverage already-installed disk capacity.

SearchStorage.com and Storage magazine editors