Features - Storage Innovations:

StorageTek UNVEILS V2X SHARED VIRTUAL ARRAY DISK STORAGE

Reaffirming its multi-pronged approach to tailor data protection solutions for customers worldwide, StorageTek, a storage services and solutions expert, introduced the next-generation of its industry-leading V2X Shared Virtual Array disk storage system at Storage World. The V2X Shared Virtual Array (SVA) disk storage system is the latest offering in StorageTek's V-Series family of virtual disk storage systems for both mainframe and open systems environments and is designed to eliminate the under-allocation and over-purchasing of disk storage capacity that is required with conventional enterprise disk storage systems.

William Brest, manager, storage management, Lufthansa Systems GmbH, information technology providers for leading European airline Lufthansa, said, "At Lufthansa Systems, we have been using virtual technology, including SnapShot and PowerPPRC, to store and protect 7 terabytes of data for the last 2.5 years and have relied on StorageTek to provide us with solutions tailored to meet our ever-changing needs. The arrival of the V2X SVA disk storage system comes at an important time. The enhanced capabilities of the V2X will allow us to save time and money and is the key to our whole data storage and protection solution."

"Enterprises such as Lufthansa need to ensure the availability of their data at each stage of its lifecycle, as well as protect it from unexpected loss," said Pat Martin, StorageTek president, chairman and CEO. "With today's announcements, including the introduction of the V2X SVA disk storage system, StorageTek is addressing ways to handle data protection across disk, tape and storage area networking (SANs) to gain maximum value from customers' IT investments."

The StorageTek V2X SVA disk storage system is an enterprise-class disk storage system that provides a cost-effective solution for the key IT challenges of protecting, sharing and managing information. Built on StorageTek's advanced virtual architecture, the V2X SVA disk storage system allows customers to utilize 100 percent of their purchased disk capacity, making pressured IT budgets stretch much further. The V2X SVA disk storage system marks a significant technology gain in StorageTek's V-series product line. It includes a new switched fibre architecture to provide better reliability and performance, increased addressing, cache and capacity to meet current and future storage needs, as well as faster fibre channel connectivity cards for increased Open Systems performance.

"The launch of the V2X SVA disk storage system extends StorageTek's V-series virtual disk family and illustrates the commitment of StorageTek to continue bringing the benefits of its virtual architecture to customers," said Tom Major, StorageTek vice president and general manager, Disk Business Unit. "With the V2X SVA disk storage system, we're offering a comprehensive, fault-tolerant enterprise disk storage solution. It provides the configuration flexibility and full set of features needed in both the mainframe and open systems environments for uninterrupted online service."

The V2X SVA disk storage system goes beyond any product currently on the market to help customers maximize their IT resources. It lowers the need to purchase additional disk and is ideally suited to enterprises that need cost-effective data mirroring.

"The cost to manage disk storage today is approximately four to ten times the original price of a disk subsystem and typically only 30 - 40 percent of that disk capacity is actually used," said Ed Broderick, principal analyst, Robert Frances Group. "Yet with data volumes still continuing to grow rapidly, enterprises clearly need ways to address their storage demands without increasing the burden on existing IT staff and resources. With StorageTek's enterprise disk solution, companies can take advantage of 100 percent of their purchased capacity -- and only the data that is written to the disk system consumes space. The V2X SVA disk storage system brings an impressive set of enhancements (over the V960) to the marketplace and an equally impressive roadmap of more to come in the near term."

CIOs and IT managers for data centers with combined mainframe and Open Systems responsibility gain the following key features and benefits with the V2X SVA disk storage system:

• Greater Fault Tolerance: As a RAID 6+ disk subsystem, customers have the ability to automatically recover from two simultaneous disk failures in an array without loss of data availability or user intervention. With the V2X SVA disk storage system, there is no need for additional disk to implement a RAID 1 mirror for double protection.
• Automatic "Data Spreading" Eliminating the Need to Manage Dynamic "Hot Spots": The V2X SVA lowers overall management costs, allowing IT departments to do more with current staff resources. Also, the V2X SVA disk storage system provides better application performance and writes data that consumes disk space -- not the data that is "allocated" to an application or file system.
• SnapShot Functionality Allows for Instant Creation of "Capacity-less" Data Copies: Data center managers can efficiently backup data without impacting application availability while providing the ability to backup more data in less time.

Availability

StorageTek enterprise disk storage products are available through a network of value added distributors, value added resellers and partners as well as direct through local StorageTek sales teams. StorageTek Global Professional Services provides a comprehensive methodology to deliver assessment, design, implementation and management services for StorageTek's disk subsystems and management software. Installation, training and support are available from StorageTek Global Professional Services and StorageTek-certified service partners.

About StorageTek

StorageTek, a $2 billion worldwide company with headquarters in Louisville, Colorado, delivers a broad range of storage solutions for digitized data. StorageTek solutions are easy to manage and allow universal access to data across servers, media types and storage networks. StorageTek is an innovator and global leader in virtual storage solutions for tape automation, disk storage systems and storage networking and is a voting member of the SNIA. Because of StorageTek, customers can manage and leverage their digital assets as their businesses grow and can maximize IT productivity to ensure enterprise-class business continuity. For more information, see www.storagetek.com, or call 800-786-7835.

Contact: Jason Knadler, Senior Product PR Manager, 303-673-5520, jason--knadler@storagetek.com.