Axxana brings black box technology to the UK

Israeli start-up Axxana has opened a UK office, looking to bring its 'black box' recorder technology to British enterprises. The company is hoping to attract customers looking to find a cost-effective method to reduce data loss.

The company accompanied its UK launch by releasing data showing that the cost of maintaining zero data loss was an inhibitor for most companies, even for those like the finance industry that are less driven by cost. According to the survey, conducted by Vanson Bourne, 44 percent of respondents from the industry found cost a factor. This compares with the 57 percent from all industries that found cost a factor.

Axxana has made its name with its Phoenix Enterprise Data Recording (EDR) technology, the so-called black box technology. Axxana CEO, Eli Effrat said that it wasn't true to say that Phoenix was analagous to a plane's flight recorder. "It's not analagous," he said, "it's exactly the same technology, it's an actual black box, one that records everything that happen's within the enterprise."

Effrat said that the technology would help enterprises maintain cost-effective data loss. "Up till now, they've had the choice to replicate data asynchronously or synchronously; synchronous is expensive and requires the back-up site to be close for latency reasons, while async offers a cheaper option, although less accurately" 

He added that Phoenix combined the best of both worlds by offering sync over async. Effrat said that this ensured that all the data was saved, there was now no longer a requirement to have a secondary site close to the primary data centre and it was a cost-effective option. "It's become possible since the arrival of SSDs," he said. "We use disks from a company called S-Tec."

Effrat said that the opening of a new office in Cambridge did not mean that the company was severing ties with its UK reseller MTI."We still need support on the ground," he said.