Features - Storage Innovations:

APPLE Xsan LETS CISCO DEPLOY MASSIVE E-MAIL ARCHIVING SOLUTION

Digital Strata, a Silicon Valley integrator of enterprise IT solutions, announced the successful integration of a massive e-mail archiving solution using Apple's new Xsan storage area network product and Xserve RAID storage subsystems. Cisco Systems will deploy the Apple storage environment to archive the company's global e-mail communications, thus ensuring compliance with government regulatory requirements and internal risk management policies.

Using Apple's Xserve systems in combination with Cisco storage area networking switches and Digital Strata's Agile-IT services provides Cisco with a state-of-the-art storage solution for its global e-mail services. The solution integrates Cisco MDS 9000 Series SAN Switches with Xserve RAID storage subsystems to provide the highest levels of reliability and availability. The forthcoming release of Apple's Xsan storage area network product will enable the aggregated global storage required for the 128-terabyte system at an unbeatable price point.

"We are harnessing Apple storage systems in best-of-breed solutions that offer twice the capacity at half the price compared with other enterprise storage vendors," said Dan Fischler, president of Digital Strata. "By combining Apple's latest enterprise software and hardware systems with our Agile-IT services, we can deliver the adaptive, extensible and flexible solutions that enable our customers get the most from their IT budgets."

Apple provided Cisco with an early release of Apple's new Xsan storage area network and Apple's Xserve RAID. Digital Strata in turn integrated the Apple storage systems with Veritas KVS e-mail archiving software and other essential components including Cisco storage routers. Digital Strata will manage the deployment of the Apple solution to enable Cisco to archive terabytes of corporate e-mail to ensure compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other corporate governance requirements.

The Cisco solution is expected to be one of the first large-scale enterprise deployments to take advantage of Apple's new Xsan storage area network product. Apple began shipping the Xsan beta release in late 2004 to registered Apple developers and integrators. Digital Strata expects to deploy the Apple storage environment at Cisco in first quarter 2005 concurrently with the general availability of the new Xsan software.