StorageQuest Multi-Services Storage Manager Certified With Sony’s Professional Disc For Data Products
Certification Unifies Storage Performance and Manageability with Open Standards through Network Attached Appliance
SAN JOSE, Calif., July 20, 2004 – StorageQuest today announced that its Multi-Services Storage Manager (MSM) software has been certified with Sony’s Professional Disc for Data (ProDATA) drives and autochanger, unifying storage performance and manageability through open standards and network attachment for digital archiving, back up and disaster recovery applications.
“Our ProDATA optical storage products offer very competitive pricing along with higher capacity and performance for companies seeking storage for regulatory compliance,” said Rick Thong, manager of OEM optical storage solutions marketing for Sony Electronics’ Component Solutions Business Division. “When configured with the MSM Network Appliance our ProDATA optical storage products become network attached digital storage solutions ideally suited for regulatory compliant, Information Lifecycle Management (ILM), medical imaging and Digital Asset Management applications providing fast and easy integration into existing storage infrastructures with open systems support and global management of all ProDATA storage resources.”
“Our patented MSM network appliance is unique in that it enables the Sony ProDATA autochanger to be quickly and easily connected to an existing corporate network infrastructure to appear as one or more storage pools which are available to any application at a very low cost,” said Fred Bedard, VP of Sales & Marketing for StorageQuest, Inc.
According to Thong, “The market for e-mail and ILM archive solutions is being fueled by government compliance regulations. However, this market requires network attached solutions, and IT managers have been building storage area networks and infrastructures to better manage their information and storage costs. They expect their archive storage solutions to be net-attached and support open standards, and by combining our ProDATA products with the StorageQuest MSM the result meets these requirements and more.”
Bedard agrees; “Low costs and industry standards are what customers want. Let’s be realistic why would a company decision maker spend tens of thousands of dollars more for a magnetic disk based archive solution which is proprietary and non-removable? We believe customers will utilize a net-attached optical archive solution and opt to spend their savings on technology that improves the generation of revenue or lowers corporate operating costs. Data value typically decreases with time so the value of data coupled with its rate of access will drive the target archive storage selection process. In many cases magnetic disk archive solutions will be seen as a proprietary and expensive overkill archive solution.”
Based on blue laser technology, the new Professional Disc for DATA media stores up to 23GB of native capacity per rewritable or write-once, read-many (WORM) disc, while the drive sustains a maximum native transfer rate of 11 MB/sec, delivering an advanced optical storage and archiving solution for professional data-intensive applications.
Thong explained that Sony plans to leverage its experience in optical recording and hopes to bring a second-generation drive and media to the market by 2005 that will feature up to 50 GB of capacity with a transfer rate of 22 MB/sec., followed by a third-generation drive and media featuring 100 GB of capacity with a transfer rate of 43 MB/sec.
The StorageQuest MSM-100 is a compact self-contained appliance which interfaces directly to the Sony ProDATA products and a standard network port and includes a complete management software suite which provides a Plug-N-Play setup and configuration Wizard as well as advanced configuration and management tools via an intuitive Graphical User Interface (GUI). The MSM-100 is shipping in full production volumes.
About StorageQuest: StorageQuest®, Inc. is the leader in unified optical storage solutions for today’s data-intensive enterprise. Since its inception in 1998, StorageQuest has pioneered technology, product, and partner firsts that continue to drive the evolution of Net-attached optical storage. StorageQuest storage solutions include specialized hardware & software or appliance and services, providing seamless storage management for open network environments. Major optical technology, product and solution providers utilize StorageQuest global data management solutions providing network attached open systems technology that is completely transparent to operating systems, applications, media and vendor storage devices. For more information contact StorageQuest at: [email protected], www.StorageQuest.com or call; 888.309.5216.
As one of the largest recording media manufacturers in the world, Sony is also shipping both rewritable (PDDRW23) and write-once (PDDWO23) Professional Disc for DATA media. Sony-branded Professional Disc for Data solutions, including application software and accessories are also now available.
Editors Note: Additional press information and press images are available on Sony Electronics’ news and information web site at: http://www.sony.com/news. Additional product information is also available at http://www.sony.net/ProDATA.