Features - Storage Innovations:

BlackBall RMFS SPEEDS RICH MEDIA FILE STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL

BlackBall Inc, a leading provider of storage management solutions for rich media files, has announced BlackBall RMFS (Rich Media File System), a next-generation storage management solution. Without any need for costly database licenses or database administration to deploy or function, BlackBall RMFS is easy and cost effective to install and administer. With just one simple installation, RMFS' distributed architecture is ready for use, without any necessary day-to-day IT administration. It will even go seamlessly through corporate firewalls without any IT staff modifications.

Utilizing patent-pending, real-time on-the-fly descriptive metadata indexing technology, BlackBall RMFS allows users to perform Web-style searches on local and network storage devices to retrieve the right rich media files, every time. Unlike a traditional DAM system, RMFS is a content aware solution which features built in metadata support so that separate database tracking and querying of rich media file metadata is not required. Users may simply attached descriptions and indexing terms directly into the file system so that their rich media files may be quickly retrieved and meaningfully repurposed. The new storage solution also ensures data integrity and increases the performance and ease of rich media file manipulation and saves -- all without costly database licenses, database administrator involvement, or resource intensive SQL index and reindex commands.

"For decades storage system interfaces have been based on antiquated file system designs that store text and binary data files by providing simple open, read, seek, write and close commands," said Bob Brown, president and CEO, BlackBall Inc. "The problem is rich media files consume massive amounts of storage space, and are now commonplace. RMFS provides a complete data input/output interface in the file system API that is specifically designed towards the serious demands that rich media files place on storage interfaces."

Rapid Deployment and Cost-Efficient Administration

Using the BlackBall RMFS Software Development Kit media users can painlessly integrate a DAM repository or an installable file system to their existing rich media applications.

User Aware, Both Online and Off

RMFS integrates with users' existing platforms, tools, and networks, as well as their current workflow. On Microsoft Windows desktops, it simply extends the Windows Explorer and file open/save dialogs a user is accustomed to using. A convenient Web-browser-based user interface allows users to access the RMFS repository at any time and from any place.

RMFS version manager technology provides complete file and system rollback capabilities to rich media file states at virtually any point in time. Working to optimize network bandwidth and storage hardware, RMFS reduces multiple work files to one file name with multiple deltas. This eliminates the risk of data loss and enables the easy manipulation of even the largest rich media files. The result is much faster recalls and saves and a significant reduction in required storage space. The system also tracks the history of a file including edits, creator, editors and readers.

Providing the necessary underlying technical architecture to achieve asynchronous and synchronous collaboration, RMFS delivers a truly seamless creative environment based around a distributed file system repository. The systems' synchronization manager handles updating centralized and satellite file system images and resolves conflicts that may arise due to multi-user activity. With a patent-pending offline mode of operation, optional local repositories on client machines (which simply appear to the user as a new drive letter) will transparently synchronize with the master repository when the client is connected. In distributed environments, RMFS reduces single points of failure problems, optimizes bandwidth usage and allows the repository to be scaled and implemented easily. It even keeps track of progress and allows for easy data coordination among groups of users all with the enhanced security of commercial-grade encryption technology.

For more information about BlackBall RMFS, please call the BlackBall sales department at 858-623-9400, or send an email to: sales@blackball.us.