Alacritus, Hitachi CP and Nissho Team to Create Virtual Tape Library

Storage software compani8es Alacritus Software(TM),
Hitachi CP and Nissho Electronics have joined together to produce what they say is the
industry’s first virtual tape library appliance specifically targeted to
the Japanese marketplace.

The technology is currently in beta testing with a first customer ship
date in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Specifically, the virtual tape library appliance consists of Alacritus’
Securitus(TM) I software installed on an e-Appliance storage router and
Hitachi disk subsystems. Hitachi CP is integrating these three components.
The virtual tape library technology can be used as an intelligent and
high-performance front-end cache for physical
tape libraries or as a replacement for physical tape libraries.

According to David G. Hill, Research Director, Storage and Storage
Management at the Aberdeen Group, “Restoring a critical file or database
is an example of data that has infrequent use, but, when you need it, you
need it now. Until recently enterprises had to make a Hobson’s choice
between disk that had fast access, but was expensive and tape that was
less expensive than disk, but also slower than disk. Securitus I takes
advantage of the inexorably falling price of disk to deliver a cost
effective solution that is also fast.”