BridgeSTOR Launches Application-Optimized Storage Appliances

Storage startup BridgeSTOR has introduced a family of capacity optimization appliances that have been tuned for VMware and feature both data deduplication and compression. The BridgeSTOR Application-Optimized Storage (AOS) appliances also include backup-specific models that only use compression. The appliances also include bundled versions of Symantec’s Backup Exec 2010, which includes data deduplication. Sister site InfoStor has the story.

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“The startup was founded by John Matze, who also started companies such as Siafu Software (acquired by Hifn, which was acquired by Exar) and Okapi (acquired by Overland Storage).

“Matze argues that most existing approaches to data reduction (a.k.a. capacity optimization) are aimed at larger enterprises and are relatively costly. In contrast, BridgeSTOR is focused on the SMB market, with some of its appliances priced at less than $20,000.

“Unlike approaches that focus on one type of data reduction technology, BridgeSTOR’s AOS appliances can combine data deduplication, compression, thin provisioning and, optionally, encryption. The inline appliances can be used on primary or secondary storage resources, but are for now focused on data “at rest.” In the future, BridgeSTOR will focus on the data transportation issues associated with cloud storage/computing.

BridgeSTOR refers to its technology as Virtual Storage Advanced Data Reduction (VS-ADR).

“‘BridgeSTOR does for storage what VMware does for servers,’ says Matze.

“The company is initially offering three appliance models that are tuned for specific application environments: VMware virtualization, backup applications and network storage (iSCSI and NAS). All of the RAID appliances are 2U, 25-drive boxes, with base configurations of nine drives. The versions for VMware are configured with 6Gbps SAS drives, while the appliances for backup and network storage are configured with 3Gbps SATA drives.”

For more, read "Startup BridgeSTOR Enters Data Reduction Market" at InfoStor.

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