Windows file migration startup AutoVirt has debuted its AutoClone Windows file replication software, joining Double-Take and Neverfail in protecting Windows by copying changed data to a remote server.

AutoVirt is a Nashua, New Hampshire, start-up, founded in 2007, to provide file migration software for Windows servers. It uses an out-of-band appliance-type approach, using either a physical or virtual server, and operates via a file virtualisation approach.

The company has now extended this technology to provide file replication services as a form of continuous protection. Whereas other replication products operate at the disk write level AutoClone works at a file level and can replicate many files simutaneously.

Josh Klein, AutoVirt's CEO, says: "It dramatically increases the speed of replication via its ability to process files in parallel versus one-by-one." The company claims up to 30 files can be replicated at once with an up to 20X increase in replication speed. However no direct comparison is made with any other replication product and disk block-level-based replication technology, operating below the file level, could be said to be replicating many files at once.

AutoClone provides differential file copies, but then so would a disk block-level replication product. If it encounters open, encrypted or password-protected files it logs the fact and carries on operating.

The AutoClone software complements AutoVirt's existing AutoMove file virtualisation-based Windows migration software and the company's third product, AutoMap, which discovers and maps Windows fileshares. Like them, AutoClone is an out-of-band product and the software is installed in a source or target file server which must have Windows 2003 or Vista installed along with .NET 3.5.

Klein emphasises AutoClone's affordability; users buying a perpetual license, for all servers in a Windows domain, that costs $5,000. ®