ONStor Announces the Industry¹s Most Scalable NAS Gateway

ONStor delivers only enterprise NAS gateway with integrated virtual server and storage provisioning technologies, delivering on-demand storage for under $20,000

LOS GATOS, Calif. ­ January 18, 2005 ­ ONStor, Inc., a leader in scalable NAS Gateway solutions for multi-vendor storage, announced the release of the ONStor Bobcat NAS Gateway, the first enterprise-class NAS gateway to offer seamless scalability from 1 terabyte to 40,000 terabytes of capacity at a starting cost under $20,000. The Bobcat NAS Gateway allows companies to easily consolidate and simply manage data on multi-vendor storage as if the data was on one NAS device.

"Customers don't have a ton of choices for NAS solutions in the general market. Right now NetApp and to some degree EMC have very little competition in this arena," said Tony Asaro, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "ONStor shakes things up because it can challenge these two major players with an extremely competitive product that has been designed for bread-and-butter NAS applications. ONStor's Bobcat is easy to manage, has a distributed and very scalable file system, offers great performance for both CIFS and NFS, and has the requisite data management functionality including snapshots and data replication. Additionally, the Bobcat has been designed so efficiently that it brings high-end NAS functionality at a very attractive and compelling price."

Viewed by analysts and IT administrators alike as the ideal solution for storage consolidation, the ONStor Bobcat is the first NAS Gateway to deliver the five essential abilities required for NAS to be used effectively in the enterprise:

  • Open storage
  • No data or user migration necessary when scaling
  • Capacity and performance provisioning on demand
  • Interoperability with windows and unix/linux
  • Ease of use

ONStor integrates both storage and processor virtualization technologies in a modular fashion to non-disruptively scale performance and capacity well beyond competitive solutions from Network Appliance and EMC. Seamless scalability makes the ONStor Bobcat the optimal choice for enterprise storage consolidation in Windows, Linux and UNIX environments.

In addition, ONStor delivers the industry¹s largest interoperability matrix, leading all competitors in open storage. ONStor is proven compatible with over 100 storage devices and software applications from vendors including IBM, EMC, StorageTek, HP/Compaq, 3PAR, Hitachi, Nexsan, VERITAS, Tivoli, Symantec, and McAfee. This allows multi-vendor environments to enjoy the latest NAS advancements regardless of the storage systems in place.

Management capability highlights of the ONStor Bobcat include:

  • vServers: This performance provisioning feature enables both automated and one-button workload migration for load balancing, failover, or performance scaling. A single ONStor Bobcat may house up to 255 vServers, any of which may be transparently migrated to other Bobcat NAS Gateways at any time.
  • AutoGrow: This capacity provisioning feature simplifies management and enhances storage utilization by allowing storage to be automatically provisioned to any Bobcat NAS Gateway from a single shared storage pool.
  • DataSnap: Enhances data protection by creating point-in-time snapshot images that allow IT administrators to roll back in time to restore corrupted or deleted files.

The combination delivers single pane-of-glass management, one-touch simplicity, integrated data protection, and continuous scalability to both enterprise and growing SMB-sized customers. With Bobcat, companies gain a highly flexible, simple to manage and powerful new way to consolidate data, increase storage utilization, and easily scale infrastructures, while employing storage devices that meet specific performance, application or cost criteria, regardless of vendor.

Michael Goode, Director of Storage Services at Nielsen Media Research, said, "
"Enterprise-wide storage consolidation is essential to reducing data center management costs. We feel that ONStor's Bobcat NAS gateway can deliver agnostic NAS storage interoperability at a price and performance point that is very attractive. The product's unique virtual server technology also assists with production isolation in a consolidated environment which provides seamless access to a heterogeneous storage environment."

"Our customers demanded a storage solution that delivers enterprise-class features and scalability, but at a workgroup-class entry price point," said ONStor¹s CEO, Bob Miller. "Bobcat is that solution. It brings IT managers freedom of choice ­ the ability to leverage existing storage resources, the capability to easily add disparate storage infrastructures that result from business acquisitions, and the freedom to integrate the storage that best meets their needs ­ while allowing businesses to create scalable, easily managed infrastructures that increase productivity and reduce operating costs."

Pricing and Availability

The highly flexible Bobcat NAS Gateway is available starting at a list price of $19,950 for a fully configured, ready-to-use device with no capacity restrictions and no per-user licensing.

About ONStor

ONStor NAS Gateways combine network infrastructure-grade hardware and purpose-built software to consolidate enterprise-wide file services on multi-vendor storage. More information about ONStor can be found at www.onstor.com or by calling toll-free 877-2ON-STOR (877-266-7867).

 

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