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The HP StorageWorks D2D Backup System is, according to the company, at least 50 per cent cheaper than competing systems and can be integrated into existing network-based IT environments. The company said that restoring lost or corrupted files would be easier on the new systems as backup data is stored online, where is can be retrieved in minutes instead of hours.

Stephen Watson, StorageWorks division programme manager at HP said that the new appliance is designed for quite small businesses with ideally around three to four servers.

'It's

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not aimed at large corporations, just mainly those sitting there wondering how to cope with back up problems,' he said.

The new storage system comes with four hard drives in a 1TB or 2TB configuration and automatically runs as in a Raid 5 configuration. The appliance uses Sata-based drives which, said Watson, are easy to replace by non-IT staff

Watson said that small businesses usually don't have a dedicated department to look after their IT and it's usually someone's evening job to start the backups.

'The problem there means it could be prone to human error as people forget as it's not their day job or they're owners who get fed up of a process they can't manage,' he said.

Watson said that while the hard-disk based system presents itself as a virtual tape drive it is not referred to by the company as one. Watson added that small business often don't like or don't understand virtual systems. He also said that small businesses often wanted tape libraries but couldn't often afford to have one.

'This system is a happy medium. It's a little more than an internal tape drive but in some cases less than half the cost of a tape library,' he said.