A half-dozen storage vendors this week are expected to announce enhancements to products that help IT professionals better archive, back up and manage data on Fibre Channel and IP storage-area networks.

Included among the scheduled announcements are:

• Exagrid's expected debut of a network-attached storage (NAS) system and management software that automatically backs up data and provides disaster-recovery capability.

• EMC's anticipated introduction of a version of its ApplicationXtender software that adds the ability to retain and retrieve records for regulatory compliance.

• Panasas' expected rollout of new hardware bundles and enhancements to its file system that let it handle larger workloads much faster.

• EqualLogic plans to announce iSCSI-based hardware appliances and software to protect data stored on them.

• CommVault's anticipated shipment of a new version of its storage resource management product that makes it easier to recover saved data.

IDC says IT organizations spent $4.3 billion on back-up, archiving and replication software last year, and that the market will grow to $6.58 billion by 2008, which would represent 54% of storage software expenditures.

Exagrid, a start-up funded by Highland Partners and Sigma Partners, plans to introduce a system called Advanstor, which consist of a NAS appliance called InfiniteFiler that connects to the Gigabit Ethernet network and to Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) storage appliances called GridDisks.

When IT configures the system and assigns storage capacity to servers, the system automatically sets up a data-protection policy so that data can be backed up or replicated locally or remotely for disaster recovery. The software also can be used to migrate data from expensive primary storage to less-expensive ATA-based GridDisks for archiving. Prices start at $62,000 for a two-node InfiniteFiler and a 1T-byte GridDisk system with software.

EMC plans to announce Documentum ApplicationXtender 5.2 software, a fixed content management suite for midsize businesses. ApplicationXtender 5.2 integrates Documentum's Department of Defense 5015.2 records management package, Documentum AX 5.2, and the ability to retain files and images for regulatory compliance. The software costs $20,000 for 25 concurrent users.