FineGround Unveils Revolutionary Data Center-Only Wide-Area-File-Services Solution
Company broadens offerings with groundbreaking asymmetric storage front-end appliance; accelerates file access across the extended enterprise
CAMPBELL, Calif., April 11, 2005 -- FineGround Inc., a leader in Web application delivery, today unveiled FineGround Velocity-FS, an innovative Wide Area File Services (WAFS) solution. Velocity-FS is the industry's first single-appliance WAFS solution that resides entirely in the data center and implements unique transformation techniques to deliver high-performance file services over Wide Area Networks (WANs).
FineGround's unique approach to WAFS can render file access over the WAN almost immune to network latency, enabling enterprises to reduce infrastructure cost and complexity by consolidating branch office storage to a central location. FineGround Velocity-FS installs in front of data center storage and file systems to transparently optimize file service traffic for the WAN while preserving rights management and access control, locking, coherency, security and data integrity. The solution supports all CIFS-compliant storage and also implements support for the Microsoft Distributed File System, providing accelerated file access to users on the WAN.
"The Enterprise workforce is increasingly global and mobile, making centralization and remote accessibility an IT priority," said Mark Fabbi, vice president at Gartner. "Technologies that install entirely in the data center, yet optimize file systems delivery over the WAN meet these seemingly contradictory goals. The ability to reduce management costs and serve all users regardless of their location is very compelling."
First releases of Velocity-FS are currently being deployed and tested by companies such as PMC-Sierra as part of storage and file services consolidation projects aimed at improving storage utilization and recovery, reducing storage management costs and facilitating regulatory compliance.
"We are pleased with the performance that the FineGround Velocity-FS has demonstrated," said Chris Smith, manager of computer services at PMC-Sierra. "File access times across the backbone link connecting our offices in California and British Columbia decreased from 80 seconds with native CIFS to 15 seconds with the Velocity-FS appliance," he added.
As businesses increasingly run widely distributed operations, IT departments are tasked with providing consistent service levels to users across the extended enterprise. This means overcoming the inevitable performance degradation that occurs when applications and protocols that were developed for LAN environments are delivered over the WAN. FineGround's flagship solution, the Enterprise Application Delivery (EAD) System, accelerates and optimizes the delivery of interactive enterprise applications through a unique combination of application-specific techniques for bandwidth reduction, latency management and server offloading. With the introduction of its new WAFS appliance, FineGround has applied the same principles to optimize file access protocols for accelerated, manageable remote file services.
"File access protocols were designed for LAN environments and fall short on the WAN when it comes to performance," said Nat Kausik, CEO of FineGround. "FineGround Velocity-FS is a natural next step towards achieving FineGround's mission helping our customers effectively support widely distributed business operations while reaping the efficiencies of consolidated, centrally managed IT operations."
Velocity-FS is compatible with all major storage and file systems. It supports Microsoft Active Directory and the NTLM rights management systems, Distributed File System (DFS) capabilities, and desktops such as Windows XP or later and Mac OS X. Velocity-FS is currently available for pilot implementations with general availability expected in June 2005. Pricing for the appliance begins at $20,000.
About FineGround
FineGround is a leading provider of application delivery systems that accelerate and optimize the delivery of business-critical applications across the extended enterprise. For more information, visit http://www.fineground.com.