Data management specialists CommVault have combined three functions in the latest version of their Simpana software suite.

Paul McClure, Asia-Pacific product manager for CommVault, says the convergence of the backup, archive and report functions into one scan is made possible because CommVault’s solutions are all developed internally, and thus share a unifying platform.

"We are the first to market with this kind of technology,” McClure says.

"Most of our competitors have three separate, often acquired, products. When you’re working on the basis that it’s all the same code, it’s a big advantage. That’s been where we’ve been headed, and we’ve now made it a reality.”

CommVault says the new tool, Simpana OnePass, can reduce the time taken to perform data management tasks by up to 50%.

"Before, every time you wanted to collect information about the file system – are they in use, are they stale, are they relevant, do we want to backup or archive – you had to do an exhaustive scan and trawl the file system to understand what’s there, what’s changed and what’s new.

"Rather than scan, backup, go back and scan again, analyse what you need to archive, then scan again and archive, we can now literally do that scan once, take the backup, and the analysis phase can be done off the metadata collection.

"We’re folding all of that functionality on top of itself.”

The development is a response to the problem known as ‘big data’ – the tendency for organisations with demanding archiving requirements, such as governments and legal agencies, to have to manage almost impossibly large data clusters.

Interest in smart data management is skyrocketing as the cost of storing data increases.

"Typically for data that’s in use, it will reside on the most expensive tier of storage. Do you keep that life insurance policy or home loan contract on $10 per gig per month for 25 years, or do you keep it in a state where as the likelihood it'll get accessed goes down you can move it to a more cost-effective layer?”

The practice can even add to a company's green credentials, McClure adds.

"If you've got data on your fastest spinning disk and it's not being used, if you can tier that data into a device that doesn't consumer power or require cooling, it's good for the environment.”

Go here to watch a video demo of Simpana OnePass.