Vision Solutions

Vision Solutions, Inc. the supplier of software solutions for ensuring availability and services for Windows platforms, Linux, ^[1] and the market of cloud computing.

Till 2016 within ten years the Vision Solutions company was a private property of Thoma Bravo fund. On May 12, 2016 it was announced that Clearlake Capital Group redeemed Vision Solutions from Thoma Bravo.

The headquarters of Vision Solutions is located in Earvin, the State of California, the USA. Representative offices Vision Solutions are opened worldwide.

The solutions Vision distributed under the Double-Take, MIMIX and iTERA brands provide business continuity support, conform to requirements of regulators. The products Vision are followed by the certified customer support according to scheme 24X7 and also a global network of partners which includes IBM companies, HP, Microsoft, VMware and Dell.

The Vision Solutions company long time specialized in software solutions for creation of the systems of high availability based on the IBM System i servers (the former AS/400), but then released versions of the products for the Unix servers IBM System p platform. In Russia and the CIS countries her clients are banks in which the core banking system and other crucial applications are unrolled on RISC servers of IBM (recently the corporation integrated both lines of the RISC systems in the IBM Power Systems series), including Rosbank, Alphabank, the Russian departments of Raiffeisen Bank and UniCreditBank. Now in the Kazakh Kazkommertsbank the project of creation based on IBM Power Systems and a packet of MIMIX Availability of Vision Solution company of the disaster-proof cluster integrating three geographically spaced DPCs is implemented (the first of them in Alma-Ata was brought into operation in April of this year).

Nevertheless, despite achievements of Vision Solution in the market of solutions of high availability to RISC servers and gradual consolidation of positions of IBM in the sector of Unix systems, for growth in sales of MIMIX Availability and its Unix version Echo Cluster is not present now special perspectives as, according to reports of analysts, deliveries of the RISC/Unix servers are constantly reduced because of the competition from cheaper servers of standard architecture. Apparently, considering this trend of development of the server market, the management of Vision Solutions considered it expedient to add to a product portfolio of the company products for servers based on processors of x86 and June of last year decided to purchase Double-Take Software company developing the software package of a clustering and replication of Availability for Windows and Linux. It should be noted that OEM versions of the products Double-Take for the servers of standard architecture are delivered not only by IBM, but also Dell and HP, and these products are able to replicate data between disk arrays of different vendors.^[2]

Key product characteristics:

• Simple management and protection of virtual environments - Double-Take Availability 5.3 allows to configure protection of the virtual machine (VM) at the level of a host (server), exempting from need of preliminary software installation. The replication agent automatically is established on each protected virtual machine upon completion of a configuration. The combination of management at the level of the server and detailed replication of each VM in real time provides simple effective protection in management.
• The improved protection of virtual clusters – Remote access to the working documents and processes organized based on Microsoft Hyper-V is provided due to protection of the clustered virtual hosts of Hyper-V on all network WAN which is supported by new Double Take Availability. The clustering of Hyper-V and replication of data in real time by means of Double Take provides the unified access to Hyper-V hosts – both local, and remote. Administrators can also appropriate the IP addresses to a remote system that provides big flexibility in ensuring fault tolerance.
• Expanded support of Microsoft Exchange – Double-Take Availability 5.3 supports Now protection of Exchange 2010 in the Database Availability Group (DAG) environments that can be especially significant for the companies wishing to implement disaster recovery for the DAG systems in environments with low capacity. New opportunities of reduction of file size of the system magazine Exchange also allow Double-Take RecoverNow 5.3 to provide the improved protection of Exchange 2010. The possibility of timing of cleaning of log files on the working server with simultaneous creation of a control point for recovery of Microsoft Exchange on a standby server allows to perform operational recovery from the freshest copies or earlier control points.
• Support of the updated operating systems – Solutions of a line of Double-Take 5.3 (Availability, RecoverNow and Move) support Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
• Simpler and effective recovery of a configuration – Is insufficiently simple to reduce idle times due to increase in resource availability. Return to that, "as was earlier" or rollback of a system can cause still great difficulties, having led to additional idle times. Double-Take Availability 5.3 gives additional opportunities for transition to reserve capacities at failure of both all server, and separate VM that reduces a possible downtime in configuration recovery time. Among the innovations provided to Double-Take 5.3 – a multitasking support at recovery of a configuration and a possibility of comprehensive monitoring of a system.
• The single console and one interface for all transactions – The Vision Solutions Company expanded functionality of the management console and brought management of all modes of protection to one screen. For the organizations placing the data-centers on several platforms and needing a possibility of their consolidation or migration, version 5.3 gives an opportunity of separation of licenses for groups and their associations with each platform. Besides, installation in scales of all company and enhanced capabilities on adjustment of capacity of channels is supported. Along with it, support of recovery of the server after failure (Full-Server Failover, FFO) and also types of tasks for files and folders is added to the single console of management. The administrator also had an opportunity at the same time to carry out one or several tasks.

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