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 iCluster - Features And Benefits

Key Product Features: Business Benefits
High performance data replication
Objects and database transactions are captured from primary systems and mirrored in real-time to one or more secondary systems. Parallelism enables efficient bandwidth usage and greater scalability: handling up to 2 billion transactions per hour. iCluster’s XtremeCache technology optimizes data flow for near zero latency for system backup and recovery.
iCluster mirrors the maximum amount of data at any given time from the primary system to the backup system, protecting organizations from data loss in the event of a system failure, while ensuring continuous availability of critical production applications. XtremeCache provides the scalability to support high availability for even the largest transactional systems.
High speed operational switching
iCluster automatically detects primary system failure and invokes automatic failover or other corrective measures specified by the user. iCluster is tightly integrated with IBM Cluster Resource Services, utilizing IBM's user exits and System i heartbeat monitoring to seamlessly switch physical operations to a backup system within seconds of an outage.
The ability to automatically invoke operational switching with minimal human intervention helps to ensure maximum uptime and a smooth, seamless return to normal business operations.
Enhanced monitoring capabilities
Interactive, real-time inquiry screens monitor all current activities, including step-by-step switchover monitoring, on both the primary and secondary system or any node within a cluster, while historical replication statistics are tracked for trend analysis.
By providing administrators the ability to monitor data replication as well as the switchover process, administrators have absolute confidence in full data protection since they can watch business applications transfer from the primary to secondary systems at every step of the process..
Advanced data integrity and reliability
iCluster’s unique MatchMerge technology ensures every transaction on the primary system is mirrored and applied in real-time to the secondary system in the exact same sequence as they occurred. Self-healing automatically guarantees data accuracy and consistency with minimal administration.
With MatchMerge technology safeguarding data integrity, businesses are much less vulnerable to data loss and corruption. Reliability in always having accurate and consistent data reduces administrative costs as synchronization checks are eliminated.
Centralized, event-driven GUI
Administrators can view the statuses of all nodes from a single screen, including data objects and out-of-sync errors. Network administration is greatly simplified and configurations are easily manageable. Alarms and alerts can be set to notify users via email/messaging immediately during pre-defined events.
Having an easy way to monitor all activities in the network significantly eases administrative operations, reducing total cost of ownership. A proactive alarm/alert system promotes self-maintenance, resulting in greater assurance of protection.
Flexible Configuration
iCluster supports both local and remote journaling to maintain a secondary copy of all application data. Both intra- and inter-system data replication are available to specify how data is protected in either a single, partitioned system or multiple physical systems.
Highly configurable flexibility guarantees absolute maximum performance in all environments while optimizing IBM System i hardware costs. Intra-system replication also allows customers to easily create a staging area for data distribution purposes.
Complete object mirroring
iCluster also replicates non-journaled items such as byte stream files (BSF) and triggers. Users can perform synchronization checks to ensure BSF objects are consistent across systems. Triggers are kept current and disabled on the backup system until switchover occurs.
Real-time mirroring of both journaled and non-journaled items provides resiliency and stability for applications using BSF files. Replication of triggers ensures full functionality of custom-coded applications in the event of an outage.