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Physical storage is a significant cost factor in the IT considering the continuously growing capacity requirements. This applies for acquisition as well as for administration and operation of such systems. PoINT Storage Manager is a “software only” solution for tiered storage and archiving, which is independent of a specific hardware vendor and which assists you in cutting down your overall storage cost.
Today, information is expected to be available on-line, even if it has not been accessed for years. This leads to an increased demand for capacity. However, only the minority of this capacity is used for active data and needs to reside on expensive, fast and highly available storage devices. Without any classification of data by a storage management solution, the newly added storage always has to fulfill highest requirements. Consequently companies are forced to invest more in their storage environment than necessary.
With PoINT Storage Manager, a multi-tier configuration can be set up providing a fast and highly available First Tier for active files and slower Secondary Tiers for infrequently accessed files. The multi-tier configuration is supported even for appliances like NetApp FAS systems.
PoINT Storage Manager copies or moves files automatically between Tiers according to policies, which have to be set up only once by the administrator. The file migration process is transparent for both applications and users, as the files remain accessible by the original path on the First Tier (stubbing), although they are physically already located on Secondary Tiers. This means that no further time consuming and error-prone adjustments in applications and workflows are necessary.
PoINT Storage Manager allows to replicate files from Secondary Tiers to alternative storage devices and technologies during the migration process. This way, there is no need to additionally backup the Secondary Tiers. In case of a storage hardware failure, a classic backup scenario requires a file restore, which can be very time consuming. In contrary PoINT Storage Manager can immediately access files on the replication devices and it can almost instantly recover files on the First Tier, which significantly reduces downtime of the complete storage environment. In addition, PoINT Storage Manager can be configured to monitor directories network-wide and copy new or altered files to storage and replication devices. Different versions of a file are stored and can be individually restored.
The importance of archival data is rising due to the world-wide increasing number of legal regulations. In some cases files have to be accessible and protected against alteration for multiple decades. However, the majority of current storage devices and technologies do not offer such a long life time. Therefore, compliant archiving is an integral part of PoINT Storage Manager to ensure data availability during the required retention period.
PoINT Storage Manager includes a native Windows file system, called PoINT Virtual File System (PoINT VFS) by which even storage devices without a file system interface, like tape or optical libraries, can easily be integrated by other applications. PoINT VFS can also be configured to operate as WORM file system. This means, files can be stored, but neither altered nor deleted. During the archiving process, a digital fingerprint of each file is generated to ensure data authentication for the life time of the file.
If a storage technology or device has to be substituted, files can be migrated to a new device by just “one button click”. Also other archive solutions, which offer a file system interface, can be integrated into PoINT Storage Manager. Files stored in such a system can be migrated transparently to new storage devices at almost no interruption of service.
Even an existing directory can become the First Tier in a tiered archival environment. PoINT Tiered Archive File System (PoINT TAFS) can protect a NTFS based directory on a Windows server and prevents any unauthorized alteration, thus providing a hard disk WORM solution. According to configurable policies, files are copied to another storage device and replaced by a transparent stub file, if desired.
PoINT Storage Manager is not bound to any specific hardware or technology and enables CIOs to escape from vendor-traps. With this freedom of choice, the most suitable and cost effective solution can be installed.
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