Electronic Discovery & Computer Forensics : RenewData : Austin, Texas

Byte and Switch
April 14, 2008
By Mary Jander

Ellery Buchanan says companies make a couple of big mistakes when it comes to e-discovery. One of them is trying to go it alone; the other is keeping too much tape.

“There’s no reason to keep all that data,” says the CEO of RenewData, a supplier of e-discovery services. “Some of our clients have 900,000 backup tapes.”

Unfortunately, he says, those tapes contain “latent liability.” If the data stored on them is found to be relevant to a company’s legal position or regulatory compliance, the fact that it wasn’t handled properly subjects a firm to fines — or worse.

This shouldn’t be news to anyone who’s been following changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, along with increased regulatory scrutiny. RenewData is just one of the companies benefiting from the rush of e-discovery business resulting from these changes. Since 2001, the company has offered legal data services ranging from planning and advice to actual hosted archiving. And business reportedly has never been better.

We caught up with Buchanan, who’s been CEO since 2004, to ask him a few questions about e-discovery — and get some feedback on what folk can do to cope with it.

Click here to read more...

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InfoStor
May 2, 2008

By Kevin Komiega

Searching thousands of backup tapes for individual files or e-mails is often time-intensive and costly. That is why RenewData is applying a new technology in its tape processing services that can quickly comb large volumes of tapes for discovery and risk management of stored information.
RenewData has developed a "single-pass" technology for processing backup tapes that allows files that have been segmented across more than one backup tape to be read as a whole without having to process each tape in the original sequence or read tapes more than once. It also allows processing of orphan tapes that may have originally been part of a sequence of tapes that no longer exist.

While backup tapes were originally intended for near-term recovery from full-system failures, today they are often retained for long periods of time and have become de facto archives. The problem is that there is little information beyond a date and server name to identify the content.

With the new single-pass technology, RenewData no longer needs to catalog all tapes in a given set before they can be processed. This means the company can process partial data from incomplete tape sets, thereby eliminating the need to locate all backup tapes in a set before starting the e-discovery process.

Now that RenewData can process more tapes faster, Bob Little, RenewData's vice president of marketing, says the company can help customers get out in front of e-discovery.

"Traditionally, companies wait until lawsuits happen to think about what they want to do from a discovery perspective," says Little. "But now we're seeing more and more companies that want to be proactive rather than reactive."

Little says RenewData's single-pass technology will reduce the cost of digging through data. "We realized the process of sorting through millions of tapes was inefficient so we developed single-pass technology so we can look across sets of tapes. It reduces the time it takes for us to get information back to customers and allows us to control costs and efficiencies. We pass those savings along to customers," he says.

Pricing for RenewData's new services with single-pass technology varies. Little says the cost is typically determined by the volume and complexity of the data being processed. However, he says taking the proactive approach to e-discovery can cost as little as one-quarter of the price for the same services in a reactive scenario.

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LTN Blog: EDD Update
May 1, 2008

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Byte and Switch
April 30, 2008

RenewData announces innovative technology developed to streamline processing of backup tapes

AUSTIN, Texas -- RenewData, a leading provider of e-discovery and electronically stored information risk management (ESIRM™) services, today announced it has developed a “single-pass” technology for processing backup tapes to better support its clients for discovery and risk management of ESI. The patent-pending “single-pass” backup tape processing technology allows files that have been segmented across more than one backup tape to be read as a whole without having to process each tape in their original sequence or read tapes more than once. It also allows processing of orphan tapes that may have originally been part of a sequence of tapes that no longer exist.

In recent years, the need for corporations to gain more visibility into their tape libraries has increased, as has the volume of tapes that ultimately need to be processed in the wake of discovery orders. This growing need is apparent, considering RenewData has witnessed a 300% increase in the number of backup tapes processed at their facility since 2004. “With the heightened need to identify information on backup tapes through the discovery process quickly, we see the need to process increasingly larger volumes of backup tapes to continue,” said Vivian Tero, Research Manager, Compliance Infrastructure, IDC. “Renew Data’s ‘single-pass’ processing technology is intended to address a need among corporations to turn around massive volumes of tape data quickly and efficiently, thus enhancing their ability to meet the eDiscovery deadlines.”

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Network World: Storage Alert
May 1, 2008
By Deni Connor

RenewData has a new service that processes tapes with a single pass

RenewData, one of the darlings of the e-discovery set, this week launched a new service for processing tapes with a single pass.

The company, who partners with AXS-One, Mimosa Systems, Index Engines and Attenex, has patents pending for a technology they call ‘single-pass’ processing. The technology allows files that have been divided across more than one backup tape to be read as a whole without having to process each tape in its original sequence or read tapes more than once. It also allows processing of orphan tapes that may have originally been part of a sequence of tapes that no longer exist.

As a result of regulations such as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), organizations have seen an increase in the amount of data that is stored on tapes and a need to recover that data more quickly and efficiently. RenewData, for instance, has seen a 300% increase in the number of backup tapes it processes since 2004.

RenewData developed the technology as it started to process even larger quantities of tapes for its clients. With single pass processing, the need to catalog all tapes in a given set before they are able to be processed is removed. It lets RenewData process partial data from incomplete tape sets, allowing users the capability to locate only some of the tapes before the e-discovery process. With single-pass technology, RenewData can process any tape in any order and discover the content immediately.

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Storage Soup: A SearchStorage.com blog
April 30th, 2008
By Beth Pariseau

Even as we continue to debate whether or not tape is dead, indicating at least that its salad days are probably behind it, some of the most interesting innovations in tape technology I’ve seen are happening right now.

For example, there’s Index Engines’ tape indexing and search software. If you’d been able to give backup administrators the ability to do a keyword search across dozens of backup tapes to identify what tapes should be restored, as well as the ability to extract single relevant files from said tapes, we might not have ever heard of a VTL.

I’d put the latest development from ediscovery services provider RenewData into that category as well. Renew says its tape-processing systems now only need to take a single pass through a given piece of linear media. Renew previously needed two or three passes, requiring its admins to mount tapes in proper order and reassemble data as it was ingested. The single-pass process will reduce the time it takes to find relevant information stored on its clients’ tapes.

The single-pass process is made possible by software that allows that data to be reassembled on the back end. Renew is not selling that software, except as part of the back-end of its hosted services. Renew’s VP of marketing Bob Little says the company doesn’t have any plans to offer it as an on-premise product.

But I have to wonder if someone else won’t find a way to develop something similar. I also wonder, if the tape space keeps coming up with finding new ways to access data randomly on linear media, whether this disk vs. tape debate could get much more interesting.

Posted: April 30th, 2008 under data backup, tape data storage.

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Patent-pending "Single-Pass" processing significantly improves efficiency of processing large volumes of backup tapes for discovery and risk management of ESI

AUSTIN, TX - April 30, 2008 - RenewData, a leading provider of e-discovery and electronically stored information risk management (ESIRM™) services, today announced it has developed a "single-pass" technology for processing backup tapes to better support its clients for discovery and risk management of ESI. The patent-pending "single-pass" backup tape processing technology allows files that have been segmented across more than one backup tape to be read as a whole without having to process each tape in their original sequence or read tapes more than once. It also allows processing of orphan tapes that may have originally been part of a sequence of tapes that no longer exist.

In recent years, the need for corporations to gain more visibility into their tape libraries has increased, as has the volume of tapes that ultimately need to be processed in the wake of discovery orders. This growing need is apparent, considering RenewData has witnessed a 300% increase in the number of backup tapes processed at their facility since 2004. "With the heightened need to identify information on backup tapes through the discovery process quickly, we see the need to process increasingly larger volumes of backup tapes to continue," said Vivian Tero, Research Manager, Compliance Infrastructure, IDC. "Renew Data's 'single-pass' processing technology is intended to address a need among corporations to turn around massive volumes of tape data quickly and efficiently, thus enhancing their ability to meet the eDiscovery deadlines."

While backup tapes were originally intended for near term recovery from full system failures, today they are often retained for long periods of time and have become de facto archives, albeit archives with duplicative and often outdated or obsolete data. Generally, there is little information beyond a date and server name to identify the content. This problem is compounded when the tapes have been inherited from other companies as a result of a merger or acquisition. If a discovery order compels production of evidence from these tapes, retrieving data from them can be a complicated and time-consuming ordeal, particularly if there are tapes missing from a backup sequence. With the addition of this innovative approach from RenewData, the time needed to process this information decreases, thereby allowing clients to gain access to crucial ESI more quickly and efficiently.

"The new 'single-pass' tape processing technology is a testament to our team of engineers, and it demonstrates that RenewData is leading the market in ESI discovery and management services," said Ellery Buchanan, CEO of RenewData. "At RenewData, we are constantly working to provide our clients with the highest level of service in the market to help them address current litigation and to be prepared for future proceedings."

Development of this new technology came about as RenewData began receiving increasingly larger quantities of backup tapes from clients in recent years, and the company's engineers recognized the need for a more efficient way to process them. With "single-pass" processing, RenewData removes the need to catalog all tapes in a given set before they are able to be processed, and this innovation also allows RenewData to process partial data from orphan tapes or incomplete sets – removing the burden on clients to locate all backup tapes in a set before starting the e-discovery process. Now, RenewData can process any tape in any order and delve into the content immediately. This allows for a reduction in labor costs, dramatically decreases the overall processing time, and alleviates much of the burden on clients when trying to locate, identify, and sort through expansive tape inventories. In addition, this quicker turnaround can help corporations more readily comply with the amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which require parties to provide a description of ESI to the other party involved and that both parties "meet-and-confer" to discuss issues related to the discovery of ESI.

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