White Paper

Security And Continuous Data Protection Take Center Stage At SNW (Storage Networking World)

Security And Continuous Data Protection Take Center Stage At SNW (Storage Networking World)

Written by Brian Sherman

(Orlando) — SNW's fall show kicked off at virtually the same time that Hurricane Wilma blew into town, but the event remained relatively intact after the glance to Central Florida (though areas further south weren't quite as lucky). While there were some attendee and vendor cancellations as a result of the storm (estimates ranged from 50 to 300 no-shows), the event maintained its full agenda with some minor juggling of presentations. The show went on and featured a number of significant new product introductions, abundant industry relevant presentations, and prominent data storage speakers.

It seemed like every single topic in storage was covered during SNW's fall event. Unlike other shows, where there is usually a pervasive theme such as security or compliance, this event covered a wide variety of topics in both the general sessions and the breakouts. Sure, there were some interesting new offerings addressing those issues, like Spectra Logic's new BlueScale Encryption media and numerous discussions on CDP (continuous data protection), but there were a lot more subjects addressed. Several manufacturers introduced 10 GB storage networks, 4 GB Fibre channel, SANs, archiving, and even (for those that can't get enough of TV shows like C.S.I.) forensics. Specific vertical market applications of storage were discussed in many of the breakout sessions, including healthcare, video production, and government.

The only thing missing, as in most SNW shows, was a significant number of end users from outside the region. While I talked to a number of local companies looking for solutions, I encountered very few attendees from outside of Florida who weren't employees of the exhibitors and sponsors. While Hurricane Wilma may have been a factor in the reduced attendance, many sponsors acknowledged the show has become more of a vendors' forum lately. That's really too bad, because the presentations I attended were topical and addressed specific issues that affect many organizations and end users. I did think it was quite appropriate that the Weather Channel Interactive's CTO, Dan Agronow, was on hand to for his discussion, Infrastructure Transformation for the weather.com Web site: Handling The Hurricanes. Through proper forecasting (must be the technology), his presentation was the day after Wilma went through. Maybe he can help build a model to help forecast a larger end user audience for the spring event, which is scheduled for April 3-6, 2006 in San Diego. That group sure would enjoy the show.

Here are some of the highlights of the many new offerings and topics that were the focus of SNW Fall 2005.

Adaptec was quite busy at SNW with its introduction of a broad family of internal serial attached SCSI (SAS) products. This included a new Adaptec SAS host bus adapter (HBA), two SAS RAID (redundant array of independent disks) controllers [one for PCI-X (peripheral component interconnect extended) and one for PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) servers], a four-bay internal storage enclosure, and the Adaptec Advanced Data Protection Suite. The company also announced two SAS subsystems: the SANbloc 5000f RAID subsystem and SANbloc S50 JBOD, built on Adaptec's universal chassis system design, which supports both SAS and SATA drives. Both come with hot-swappable power and cooling, controller modules, and hard drives, with cost-effective expansion potential to 54 TB using direct attached and networked storage. SAS refers to a next-generation SCSI interface with significant improvements in scalability, performance, and reliability over parallel SCSI by leveraging a serial design for data transport. "SAS is targeted to businesses with substantial storage capacity requirements, challenging transaction-oriented applications, and heavy data transfer situations. The subsystems are among the first on the market that support the deployment of SAS in both direct attached and networked storage environments, allowing customers to shape storage to their own specific application needs," said Tim Connolly, VP of storage products for Adaptec, Inc.

Adaptec also touted its collaboration with Seagate to encourage the industry transition to SAS with the announcement of a channel program designed to promote early deployments by the system builder and reseller communities. The program includes development of a SAS Starter Kit, containing two Seagate Cheetah 15K.4 hard disk drives, an Adaptec 48300 SAS HBA, and the required cables.

Breece Hill promoted its iStoRA integrated disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) appliance suite, including versions for broadcast, entertainment, medical, and print production companies. The company's products are available to value-added resellers focused in the SMB space and include iStoRA Backup and Recovery, iStoRA Archive, and iStoRA Video Archive. "The iStoRA D2D2T appliance is packaged for quick integration by resellers, a key advantage and selling point for those requiring a flexible solution for small to midsize customers," said Robert Schaefer, Breece Hill's CEO. "SMBs face the same issues with data growth and backup and recovery as larger enterprise companies, but with smaller or nonexistent IT staffs to solve these issues. That's a place where iStoRA makes sense for a reseller and end user," added Schaefer.
For additional information on Breece Hill's products and services, click here.

Computer Associates announced the availability of the second release of its CA Protection Suites (r2 for SMBs), which represent the industry's first completely integrated security, storage, and systems migration suite for small and medium businesses. New to this version is an integrated, Web-based, central management console for the server and a simplified dashboard for the desktop. Combined with a single install process for both the server and the desktop, it was developed to ease an SMBs IT administration and management operations while helping protect its data and reduce risk.

CA's other big news centered on its acquisition of iLumin Software Services, Inc., an enterprise message management and archiving software provider. CA's BrightStor solutions will benefit from the addition of cross-platform e-mail security, archiving, storage management, and data protection with iLumin's Assentor product line. Assentor provides enterprise message management and archiving for e-mail, instant messages, and other unstructured data across platforms including Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, and Novell GroupWise. These solutions enable customers to cost-effectively address their message management objectives, including records management, discovery, litigation support, compliance, and supervision. "This acquisition allows us to introduce Assentor to our international customers as a stand-alone product now and, when we integrate it with the Brightstor platform, it will allow us to offer a more comprehensive intelligent storage management offering," said Anders Lofgren, SVP product management and marketing for storage products at Computer Associates. That integration can be expected in as little as six months' time.
For additional information on Computer Associates' products and services, click here.

EqualLogic was energized with several points of discussion, including the introduction of the P5300 E, the company's designation within the Microsoft Simple SAN (storage area network) for Windows Server program, and EqualLogic's expansion into European markets with the help of distributor GE Access.

The P5300 E offers 7 TB of raw storage with 500 GB SATA II drives, with a 3 GB/ second bus speed and native command queuing for faster data retrieval. The PS Series provides a seamlessly scalable SAN for DPM (data protection manager) backup services while ensuring full disaster recovery capability with its built-in auto-replication to a remote site. It is being promoted as an ideal platform for DPM with its scalability, integration with Microsoft Windows storage management features, and built-in disaster recovery capabilities. EqualLogic has worked closely with Microsoft to ensure full integration of the PS Series and Data Protection Manager 2006 within Windows environments.

EqualLogic also announced its support for Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006, with the complete PS Series family offering a scalable storage platform that augments DPM backup services with disaster recovery capabilities for end-to-end data protection. "Our ongoing integration with Microsoft storage initiatives gives our broad base of Microsoft customers and channel partners confidence in our support of Windows-based storage management and data protection," said John Joseph, VP of marketing for EqualLogic.

One final point is Microsoft's Simple SAN for Windows Server designation. Microsoft created the Simple SAN program to recognize the networked storage products that simplify the costs and process of SAN implementation integrated with the Windows Server 2003 platform. EqualLogic's PS Series family is certified as compatible with Windows Server platforms and designed to complement Microsoft's storage technologies including Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSCS), Multi-Path Input/Output (MPIO), and Virtual Disk Service (VDS). The PS Series iSCSI storage system supports the latest version of the Microsoft iSCSI Software Initiator.
For additional information on EqualLogic's products and services, click here.

Hitachi Data Systems was heavily promoting the new TagmaStore Adaptable Modular Storage (AMS) and Workgroup Modular Storage (WMS) lineup aimed at the SMB market. This offering provides a scalable modular storage solution for stand-alone or tiered storage systems by leveraging the embedded virtualization layer in the Hitachi TagmaStore Network Storage Controller. Both the AMS and WMS product lines feature high-end features, such as Logical Cache Partitioning and Virtual Storage Ports with secure Host Storage Domains. These capabilities are unique among midrange systems and provide secure data access to applications such as Microsoft Exchange, ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), or other relational databases. The virtual storage ports with new 4 GB/second Fibre Channel (FC) ports can create up to 512 virtual ports for increased bandwidth.

AMS systems offer FC drives with a cost-effective SATA intermix option, while WMS systems are configured only with SATA drives, for reduced-cost nearline storage applications such as data archival for regulatory compliance. Both platforms support software for point-in-time snapshots, remote copy, and RAID-5 and RAID-6.

Hitachi's other introduction announcement included the Network Storage Controller model NSC55. With a massively parallel crossbar switch architecture, a large-scale controller-based virtualization layer, logical partitioning, storage-agnostic universal replication, and a large offering of software tools, the NSC55 offers customers high-end functionality and enterprise-level virtualization software in a midrange price level.

Infortrend discussed the introduction of its first 4 GB/second FC-4G to SATA-II RAID subsystems. Available in single controller (EonStor A16F-G2422) and redundant controller (ES A16F-R2422) models, these arrays support RAID-6 and combine the performance, reliability, and scalability of FC-4G host interfaces with the lower cost and higher capacity benefits of 3 GB/second SATA drive technology.

Using Infortrend's ASIC266 with XOR engine, the ES A16F-G2422 and ES A16F-R2422 are designed to meet the speed, capacity, and reliability needs of medium to large enterprise companies. "The maturity of RAID allows increases in performance and bandwidth over the previous generation of SATA technology," said Tony Chu, president of Infortrend Corporation.

Infortrend also displayed its EonStor S12F-R1420 SAS raid array, with a dual controller, 4 GB FC to SAS subsystem. With throughput greater than 1,000 MB/second, it is also being promoted for its scalability and availability over previous SCSI and SATA offerings.

Intransa highlights from SNW included a preview of its 10 GbE IP SAN and the introduction of the new IP2000 Value-Line products. Intransa codeveloped the IP2000 storage solution with Rasilient Systems, a provider of modular RAID storage platforms. Intended for small IP SAN deployments with a low price point and simple administration, it will be sold as part of the Intransa Value-Line. Intransa will market the stand-alone IP2000 with its optional StorControl management support to provide additional scalability and performance.

Intransa also previewed upcoming products at SNW, including a real-world application demonstration with the 10 GbE IP SAN featuring Xframe Ethernet adapters from Neterion. "Providing additional connectivity to servers will allow the cost of storage to decrease as the performance of the network increases," said Doug Rainbolt, VP of marketing for Intransa. It sounds like a great advance in technology, but expect actual 10 GbE offerings to take another year to ship to customers.
For additional information on Intransa's products and services, click here.

JMR Electronics, Inc. had several exciting new products to focus on at SNW. The MARLIN is a 4 GB/second Fibre Host-based SATA2/SAS storage system. It provides 4 GB to the host and connects through SATA I, SATA II, or SAS drives in a 16-bay solution. This 3U, 16-drive system offers up to 8 TB of capacity per shelf with SATA drives and 2.3 TB with SAS drives. Expandable up to 80 TB, this solution offers native support for Snapshot, RAID-6, and the SMI-S (Storage Management Initiative-SNIA) open-industry management standard.

The MARLIN allows the combination of SAS and SATA disk drives within the same enclosure for configuration flexibility along with a SAS expansion port, Java-based RAID Manager software, and RAID 6 functionality.

The second JMR focus was its Z-IPSAN with IP SAN (Internet Protocol-based storage area networks) introduction. IP SANs utilize iSCSI over inexpensive GB Ethernet instead of Fibre Channel networks. Co-designed with Intel, Z-IPSAN is compatible with existing servers, Ethernet switches, network interface cards, and storage arrays. The Z-IPSAN features 16 hot-swappable SATA drives, 8 TB of storage per 3U enclosure, redundant power supplies, and support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50. Other features include thin provisioning, clustering software, automated snapshot, and data replication for disaster recovery. Z-IPSAN is intended to benefit organizations looking to expand existing storage infrastructure with additional capacity and high-speed data retrieval.

JMR also announced the release of its PSAN [PCI (peripheral component interconnect) storage area network] systems, which use SATA disk drives with host connectivity provided by PCI bus expansion and arrays can be extended to several PB (petabytes) without any performance loss. PSAN uses commonly available, inexpensive cable to interconnect storage arrays, using high-speed transmission of PCI bus data without translation to different bus architecture. PSANs can provide a capacity of 1,536 PB, or 1,536,000 TB, utilizing low-cost SATA devices without the need to bridge to Fibre Channel or any other bus. "PSAN offers users a way to build large-scale storage systems with a cost that is ideal for backup and archiving huge volumes. With current disk drive costs, this array can achieve a cost of $1,000 per TB once scaled to just a few units," said Josef Rabinovitz, president of JMR Electronics.
For additional information on JMR's products and services, click here.

LeftHand Networks was busy at SNW with five new announcements, including two new products and three major vendor relationship developments (with HP, Intel, and MPC). LeftHand's new Network Storage Module (NSM) 160 is available in 1 or 2 TB units and was developed to work with LeftHand's SAN/iQ software in the construction of highly available and scalable iSCSI SANs. The NSM 260 is a 3 or 6 TB unit from Xyratex. The NSM 160 satisfies the lower capacity requirement situations, supports four 250 GB or 500 GB SATA drives, and features redundant power supplies. The 260 uses 250 GB or 500 GB SATA drives, dual power supplies, and hardware RAID (random array of independent disks).

In a new relationship, MPC will distribute LeftHand's SAN/iQ software on its DataFRAME SAN solutions, including the DataFRAME 140 iSCSI SAN, which is expected by the end of this year. The midsize commercial, government, and education markets will benefit from the scalability and data availability of this new line.

HP will also include LeftHand's SAN/iQ on the HP ProLiant DL380 to create "storage modules" that are amassed in a storage pool managed from a single GUI (graphical user interface). This feature scales the performance and redundancy of the system as capacity is added to the SAN/iQ Cluster. The combined solution provides a high-performance iSCSI SAN designed for databases and easy management. Other features include load balancing, just-in-time scalability, and fail-safe data availability with network RAID capabilities.

LeftHand will incorporate its SAN Filer 100 into the new release of Microsoft's Windows Storage Server 2003-R2. The SAN Filer integrates file services into LeftHand's SAN and supports file and print services for Microsoft Windows (SMB/CIFS), UNIX/Linux (NFS), Apple (AppleTalk), HTTP, and Novell (NetWare). Purchasing the SAN Filer with the LeftHand SAN simplifies management and availability of a customer's database and files.
For additional information on LeftHand Networks' products and services, click here.

McDATA showcased its new 4 GB FC fabric switches, including the Sphereon 4400 and 4700, in addition to touting its blade switch technology. The FC switches are available through McDATA and partners EMC, IBM, and McDATA's reseller and distributor network. Sphereon 4400 and 4700 feature simple installation and management wizards, while the 4700 boasts seamless integration into mainframe systems.

McDATA also displayed its FC blade switches (co-developed with QLogic) and promoted the technology benefits for consolidating large enterprise systems. Available for customers operating Dell, HP, or IBM servers, the solution features full redundancy and non-disruptive code load /activation. McDATA has 4 GB blade solutions available through IBM and HP, and 2 GB offerings from IBM and Dell.
For additional information on McDATA's products and services, click here.

Neartek discussed the benefits of its Virtual Storage Engine (VSE) software, which uses tape virtualization technology to emulate tape drives and libraries for open system hosts. Each host recognizes the tape drives or libraries it has been tasked to, but these devices are virtual. The virtualization engine can eliminate tape media and drive errors, increasing performance and increasing operational efficiency (cut down manual intervention).

Consolidation of storage can lead to reductions in the floor space required for hardware and lower the cost of maintenance, media, and administration. Another benefit is enhanced business continuity, possible with faster backup, restore, and data archiving performance. The ability to back up data to disk, and data to disk and tape, can help those looking to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA standards for data retention.

Overland Storage filled in its portfolio with the new protected primary storage appliance, the ULTAMUS Series. This addition will enhance its other product lines, which include secondary storage disk-based backup and recovery appliances and tape automation appliances for long-term archiving. ULTAMUS with Protection OS is the result of Overland's acquisition of software vendor Zetta Systems earlier this year. Zetta's software is the backbone of this offering, which offers built-in data protection and simplified capacity management. ULTAMUS with Protection OS delivers advanced features including high availability, snapshots, remote and local replication, virtualization, and thin provisioning. Customers will benefit from the ability to reliably store, protect, instantly recover, and cost-effectively manage business-critical data.

Installed in either an iSCSI or Fibre Channel storage area network, the ULTAMUS Series combines up to two processors with as many as four 8 TB expansion arrays, for a total of up to 32 TB of raw storage capacity. The storage processors include embedded Protection OS software, which feature replication, virtualization, high availability, and thin provisioning. Snapshots can be taken as often as every minute for virtually any-point-in-time recovery. The expansion array offers RAID 5 as well as redundant, hot-swappable components, providing additional data protection.

The ULTAMUS I includes one storage processor while the ULTAMUS II offers two, with active/active failover, eliminating the concerns from having a single point of failure. Replication allows data to be copied within a single ULTAMUS appliance or to an offsite unit for an effective disaster recovery system. Block-level replication maximizes available bandwidth and encryption provides added security.

Plasmon promoted its UDO-compliant write once (CWO) media, for compliance with data retention and disposition regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA, or in ILM (information lifecycle management) infrastructures. This new media is a cross between rewritable and true write once formats, offering the data longevity and authenticity features of true write once media, but with the added ability to destroy selected records. Targeted data sectors on CWO media can be physically destroyed. Unlike the erase pass on magnetic disks, the shred function on phase change media leaves no residual traces of previous data. For companies with older UDO drives, CWO media can be supported with an uncomplicated firmware upgrade.

Plasmon also announced that IBM is using its UDO (Ultra Density Optical) drive, media and automation technology in its new line of UDO libraries. The IBM System Storage 3996 optical libraries for IBM eServer iSeries with UDO drive, media, and automation technology are available in three configurations; Model 032, 080, and 174. These libraries are designed for entry-level and midrange customers and support both Plasmon write once and rewritable 30 GB UDO media. The 3996 Model 032 library is available with either one or two UDO drives for a maximum capacity of 960 GB, while the 080 and 174 libraries offer either two or four UDO drives for a maximum of 2.4 TB and 5.2 TB, respectively.
For additional information on Plasmon's products and services, click here.

Qlogic's recent purchase of Troika Networks, a storage virtualization platform provider, was a significant topic of discussion among the SNW attendees. Troika's Accelera NSS (network storage services) storage virtualization technology will be integrated into entry-level and mid-range QLogic virtualization platforms available with several OEM and ISV software solutions. Accelera is certified with FC switches and storage arrays from multiple vendors and is currently available as a bundled offering with StoreAge software called SAN Volume Suite. It will be interesting to see how this technology is integrated and what QLogic's portfolio will look like in a few months.

QLogic also announced that support for Virtual SAN (VSAN) technology has been integrated into QLogic SANblade 2400 HBAs. VSANs allow customers to consolidate a number of their small, application-specific fabrics onto larger fabrics. This consolidation permits organizations to manage a shared SAN infrastructure and multiple applications, servers, and storage devices from a single HBA. VSANs, now an ANSI T11 standard, provide storage administrators with a method to improve security, scalability, and performance by segmenting physical SANs into multiple rational (virtual) SANs. Each segment has its own set of fabric services and policies specific to the needs of that application.

Quantum was full of new product introductions at the fall event. The new DLT-V4 tape drive, available for just under $1,000, is targeted to SMB customers and provides many of the larger drives' features, including DLTSage, DLTIce, and write once, read many (WORM) capability. DLT-V4 can be used as a stand-alone product or as part of an entry-level server solution. The drive offers 320 GB of compressed capacity and a 72 GB/hour compressed transfer rate; four times the capacity and three times the speed of existing DAT 72 tape drives. The DLT-V4 tape drive is the first tape drive to ship with a SATA interface, simplifying its attachment to entry-level servers.

Other additions to the company's lineup include the DX3000 and DX5000 disk-based backup and recovery appliances. Offering flexibility for diverse business environments from small to medium enterprises to remote offices, the DX3000 and DX5000 appliances can be easily deployed and integrated into existing infrastructures without expensive process re-engineering or staff retraining. Based on a 2U or 5U (rack-unit) chassis, with RAID 5, each integrates with any open systems tape automation system to allow data migration and archive. These new appliances are compatible with many backup packages, including CA ArcServe, CommVault Galaxy, EMC Legato Networker, HP OpenView Data Protector, VERITAS Backup Exec, and VERITAS Net Backup. Compatible with iSCSI or Fibre Channel networks, they include features such as dual RAID controllers, redundant and hot-swappable power supplies, hot-swap disk drives, and redundant fans. Optyon hardware compression eliminates the performance degradation of software compression.

One last bit of news from Quantum is the DPM5500, based on Microsoft's Data Protection Manager application. This disk-based backup system integrates an optimized platform and differentiated features with the Microsoft DPM application. The DPM5500 streamlines and improves operational efficiencies through point-in-time backup and recovery of data for Microsoft Windows Server platform customers. It also offers a 5U appliance with RAID 5-protected usable capacity points ranging from 3.6 TB to 14.4 TB compressed usable capacity. It also includes Optyon compression and integrated data migration to tape. Delivery of the DX3000, DX5000, and DPM5500 through the company's network of channel and value-added resellers should begin in December 2005.
For additional information on Quantum's products and services, click here.

Spectra Logic Corporation had a large presence at the show with its promotion of BlueScale Encryption. Data backups are susceptible to unintended or malicious actions that put at risk confidential information and thousands or millions of identities, exposing organizations to serious legal liability. One of the hardest issues to overcome is protecting data at rest. To address this risk, Spectra Logic will be introducing encryption-enabled libraries (Q1, 2006) that integrate data backup with federally approved AES-256 encryption standards. By encrypting data through library hardware, data is secured, no additional point of management is required, and proven backup strategies can continue unchanged. "The most important part of encryption is in managing the keys because processes must be in place to both protect them and be able to destroy them when needed," said Hossein ZiaShakeri, SVP of marketing and sales for Spectra Logic.

Existing Spectra T120 and T950 library customers will be able to upgrade their libraries with an encryption-enabled module, or blade, in a matter of seconds. Spectra Logic encryption-enabled libraries will be available to incorporate encryption into existing backup strategies. Spectra Logic's flexible and powerful key management system lets users easily manage, restore, and dispose of encrypted mobile media.
For additional information on Spectra Logic's products and services, click here.

STORServer arrived at SNW with several announcements, including the availability of a new CDP Client (IBM's new Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files) for its appliances. With a simple installation, this application can continuously protect information on laptops, desktop PCs, and file servers by backing it up to multiple file copy locations, including the STORServer Appliance. The CDP client provides an extra level of disaster recovery protection with continuous backup to the STORServer appliance. Small to midsize businesses using desktop PCs and laptops could benefit from its continuous, real-time backup for valued information in Word documents, MP3 files, digital photos, presentations, and spreadsheets. Geared toward the SMB market, the new functionalities have been streamlined and simplified for the most employees to use. Critical information can be restored immediately direct from the disk without having to connect to a LAN.

The new STORServer Enterprise Email Archiving Appliance, powered by NorthSeas, offers out-of-the-box e-mail archiving for enterprise and small to midsize businesses. This all-in-one appliance can capture e-mail at a speed of approximately 250,000 messages per hour and its onboard message index holds approximately 500 million messages. In addition to capturing messages, this solution provides users the ability to search, list, view, and retrieve messages in their inbox using their existing messaging system, without additional software. It reduces storage space by archiving just a single copy of messages (and their attachments) addressed to multiple recipients, which relieves the mail server of much of its storage tasks. This can lead to an increase in e-mail server speed and the simplification of retention policies in an office.
For additional information on STORServer's products and services, click here.

Symantec focused on communicating the updates to its product line, including Backup Exec 10d and LiveState Recovery 6.0. Available for servers, desktops, and laptops, the LiveState Recovery 6.0 features the speed and reliability of disk-based bare metal system recovery. The new version also has the ability to perform dissimilar hardware restoration, virtual conversion, and lights-out operations. The suite provides rapid and complete Windows system recovery to complement the latest version of Symantec's continuous data protection solution, Symantec Backup Exec 10d.

Symantec Backup Exec 10d for Windows Servers software includes the Continuous Protection Server, a software solution that eliminates backup windows, provides Web-based end user file retrieval capabilities, and offers total disk-to-disk-to-tape data protection.
For additional information on Symantec's products and services, click here.

Wasabi Systems, Inc. launched its Storage Builder for IP-SAN, version 1.6, which storage OEMs and resellers can use to create dedicated, networked block-storage appliances using standard transmission control protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and iSCSI protocols.

Wasabi also introduced its Storage Builder for NAS software solution. This offering features a file-based network storage capability that allows basic PC server components to be transformed into cost-effective NAS appliances and NAS heads scalable from SMB to enterprise organizations. Storage Builder for NAS provides support for client workstations running all mainstream desktop and server operating systems including Microsoft Windows and Linux. Storage Builder for NAS offers advanced snapshot capability with Windows VSCS, flexible backup tools for tape and disk, complete IPv6 capability, e-mail event notification, and fully integrated Active Directory Services support. This solution comes standard with cost-effective Serial ATA, but also supports SCSI and Fibre Channel drives.

Xiotech introduced the Magnitude 3D 3000e, described as an entry-level SAN featuring the company's dual-controller cluster platform. It's easily upgradeable to the capacity of the higher tier Xiotech offerings, as the demands for additional storage grow. The 3000e's ability to switch disk caching on and off on each disk level provides increased performance in selected storage areas but does require a system-wide setting.

"Smaller enterprises have the same needs to store and manage digital information as larger businesses, but generally have less resources to get the job done," said Mike Stolz, vice president of marketing at Xiotech. "Magnitude 3D 3000e lets them manage their current information with a platform that can grow as their business demands dictate."

The Magnitude 3D 3000e is available now through Xiotech's Dimensional Partner Program resellers, as well as the company's direct sales force.
For additional information on Xiotech's products and services, click here.

Other Images From SNW Fall 2005

Brian Sherman is chief editor of ECM Connection and Data Storage Connection