Features - Storage Innovations:

FalconStor/NETWORK ENGINES COLLABORATE ON NEW VTL APPLIANCE

FalconStor Software Inc, a leading developer of network storage infrastructure software solutions, and Network Engines Inc, a leading development, manufacturing and distribution partner for storage and security software and equipment providers, announced a collaboration to deliver a Virtual Tape Library Appliance (VTLTM Appliance) powered by IPStor. Leveraging industry standard disk and Fibre Channel or IP SAN, the VTL Appliance is designed to accelerate the backup and restoration of data with minimal operating cost and quickest return on investment.

"This Virtual Tape Library Appliance greatly enhances IT needs to overcome the shrinking backup window," said Steve Kenniston, technology analyst with the Enterprise Storage Group. "By crossing the barrier of tape to disk, emulating existing backup infrastructures, this virtual tape library appliance addresses the business continuance issue of backup and restore. FalconStor Software and Network Engines have teamed up to bring this to market utilizing the expertise of their combined organizations."

The Virtual Tape Library Appliance optimizes the performance and reliability of backup/restore operations without requiring changes to be made to the existing backup software. Extensive qualifications have been conducted to ensure the interoperability between the VTL Appliance and third party backup applications. In addition to improving performance and reliability, the VTL Appliance facilitates the consolidation and provisioning of backup resources (tape library and media) to lower administrative costs.

"FalconStor's intelligent software solution is a natural fit for our appliance development, manufacturing and distribution services," said Mike Riley, vice president of marketing and strategy of Network Engines. "This partnership allows FalconStor's industry-leading backup and restore solution to be available on an appliance developed by Network Engines and distributed through TidalWire, our distribution arm. It's a great example of the unique capabilities that together we are able to offer data center managers who need a cost effective solution for business continuity."

The Virtual Tape Library Appliance increases the speed and reliability of existing third party backup applications by using disks to emulate industry standard tape libraries. The VTL Appliance transfers data to and restores it from a disk-based virtual tape at ultra high speeds, and maximizes reliability by removing robotic mechanical failures and physical tape media errors.

Remote vaulting and offsite tape storage can be performed using the VTL Appliance to provision virtual tape media and libraries over an IP network. Data movement between the VTL Appliance's disk-based virtual tapes to physical tape media is accomplished as a secondary task, and can be done at any time of the day without impact to the application performance. The VTL Appliance can also be configured in pairs, ensuring end-to-end path/appliance/storage high availability for non-stop backup and restore operations.

"FalconStor and Network Engines both recognize our customers' need for efficient storage solutions that can cost-effectively manage data across an enterprise and make it accessible on an as-needed basis," said Wendy Petty, FalconStor vice president of sales. "This collaboration offers customers fully integrated near-line data archival solutions that minimize overhead, without sacrificing management functionality. In today's demanding IT market, that's a real competitive advantage."

MSRP for the Virtual Tape Library Appliance powered by IPStor starts at U.S. $15,900 per appliance, configurable with additional options. It will be available through TidalWire, Network Engines' distribution operations, later this quarter.