Storage Vendors Introduce Alternatives to Tape

As customers abandon existing tape libraries for more efficient disk-based secondary storage options, vendors are responding by upgrading their archival, compliance and data life-cycle management offerings.

This week FileNet Corp. will introduce FileNet P8 Active Storage and Retrieval Services. The new ASAR capabilities allow FileNets P8 ECM (enterprise content management) platform to be integrated with storage devices from EMC Corp., IBM, Hitachi Data Systems Corp., Network Appliance Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Plasmon plc. to more easily manage content migration across storage tiers, said officials at FileNet, in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Delivered at the data services layer of FileNet P8 Version 3.5, ASAR consists of a storage policy object that allows FileNet to offer life-cycle data movement among rewritable and fixed-content stores.

Improved decision making within storage environments is becoming critical to customers facing ballooning data, mounting regulatory pressure, and continued operational and cost inefficiencies of tape storage.

Meanwhile, fresh from its recent acquisition by Sun, Storage Technology Corp. last week introduced IntelliStore, its new intelligent-archive hardware and software suite designed to help businesses capture and manage data as it is archived.

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Roger Goss, manager of network operations for Novant Health, in Winston-Salem, N.C., said he is testing the archive product to help support 420 applications in his enterprise.

“What we find with a lot of applications that are very good from a business use standpoint is that theyre not always architected in a way that allows for data life-cycle management,” said Goss. “[Using IntelliStore] were trying to insulate or minimize the impact on applications as physical storage and [storage] devices are retired.”

Goss said storage retention in health care mandates keeping anywhere from seven to 28 years worth of accumulated data.

Built using StorageTeks FlexLine 600 disk-based online storage system, IntelliStore provides improved managed file capacity and 10 to 20 times the throughput of legacy content-addressed storage. The product integrates with WORM disk and tape, offers encryption and digital shredding, and supports multiple applications, said officials at StorageTek, in Louisville, Colo.

IntelliStore is available this month; pricing starts at $75,000 for 4TB, with additional capacity in increments of 1TB for $9,000.

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