DISC storage products have always been the best solution for nearline and archive requirements in the traditional markets of financial, healthcare and government applications. But as media-rich and content driven data become a bigger part of the capacity in corporate storage infrastructures, static-content (i.e. nearline) solutions are becoming requirements in network storage environments. When customers begin looking at solutions for this static-content data, it is our job to convince them that DISC products are the most affordable and reliable storage devices for their network.

A great example of this case is the video surveillance market, in which the constant monitoring and recording of video footage places great demands on storage infrastructures. The type of data created in this environment is truly static-content data. The data must always be available for reference and once it is created, it does not change. Traditional storage methods such as VHS tape and single hard disk drives are falling out of favor because the technology is limited in its ability to store and retrieve massive amounts of data quickly and reliably.

Video surveillance sites migrating from black and white, stop-motion analog recording to full-motion, high-definition digital technology can easily expect to build out their storage infrastructure by an order of magnitude. There is no other solution currently on the market, disk or tape-based, that is designed to handle the current and future storage requirements that an application such as this demands other than a centralized video repository built upon nearline storage. We are seeing some initial successes in this market and expect more in the future.

Regardless of the application, if you look at a storage customer’s requirements, you’ll find that it remains the same across the board. Customers want to affordably add storage capacity to their networks without affecting any of the processes on the network. They want to add capacity without increasing personnel or backup windows and they want the new storage system to seamlessly integrate into their existing infrastructure. Over the last two years, providing products focused on these requirements has been the goal at DISC. DISC products are the best solution for static-content data.

Times are changing and the way customers solve their storage problems are also changing. It is up to DISC and our partners to make sure the customers know about and understand how our solutions can make their networks an easier place to live.

DISCSTOR/nas is a dedicated network attached file server and storage system that gives users a complete storage and archive solution. With features such as scalable volume sets and transparent access to data, users have the flexibility of distributed storage throughout the enterprise. Data that would otherwise be taken offline, in storage-limited environments, can be made continuously accessible with DISCSTOR/nas. Administrators can set up the device to operate as a logical drive and can control simultaneous data migration policies and multiple volume sets for individual departments and workgroups. Volume sets can scale in capacity as software management monitors usage levels and will automatically prompt the administrator for additional storage capacity as required.

Critical applications requiring High-Availability are ensured of continuous data storage in the event of component failure through the self-backing, self-archiving technology in DISCSTOR/nas. By deploying a DISCSTOR/nas storage system administrators can reduce downtime and increase productivity.

“The storage industry as a whole has already proven that it can roll out high-capacity systems that are designed for storing hot and frequently used data,” stated Bob Riland, President and CEO of DISC. “The next challenge is in designing a complete solution that can provide near and long-term storage capabilities while ensuring the data will be available 24x7. Using High-Availability and Clustering we have designed DISCSTOR/nas-HA to do just this, offering users a highly reliable, cost-effective strategy to enable instantaneous data access while protecting data integrity”

DISCSTOR/nas is compatible across the entire DISC product line, giving users seamless connectivity up to 10 TBs of decentralized storage on the network. DISCSTOR/nas 1.3 is available immediately.

The blue laser technology used in the UDO drives enables substantially greater data densities, resulting in dramatically higher media capacity. With 3X increase (30GB versus 9.1GB per media cartridge), customers will be able to purchase a highly cost-effective storage medium that is used for storing vast amounts of information, such as static content and reference data, or archival and permanent records which require adherence to legal retention requirements.

Multifunction UDO drives support both Write Once (WORM) and Rewritable media using Phase Change recording technology. The recording layer for UDO Rewritable media can be reheated by the blue laser so that data can be erased and rewritten, while
DISC, Inc. announces UDO compatibility in Orion Series libraries. UDO Write Once media uses an irreversible layer structure making it physically impossible for the drive to alter the data on the recording surface after it has been written.

“Blue laser and phase-change technologies represent major milestones for optical storage devices. The increase in bit density and faster data transfer rates will translate to dramatically lower price-per-gigabyte and substantially faster time-to-data,” said Wolfgang Schlichting, Research Manager of Removable Storage at IDC. “Blue laser-based devices, such as UDO drives will enable storage library manufacturers, such as DISC to bring a whole new generation of high-capacity, high-performance networked storage solutions to market.”

“I’m very excited to see a new generation of technology becoming available in the optical storage marketplace,” said Bob Riland, President and CEO of DISC. “With the availability of the UDO technology, DISC customers will have a viable roadmap beyond the current MO technology. This advancement in technology improves the value proposition of DISC from both a price and performance perspective. Including UDO in our product offering also makes DISC products more viable in some of the higher performance storage applications.”

The Orion Series storage libraries with UDO technology that range in capacities from 4.2 TB to 31.5 TB are scheduled to be available in late fourth quarter of 2003. Upgrades to existing Orion systems will begin in Q1 2004.

Founded in 1984, the company has expanded from strictly providing desktop and networking services to integrating business-critical IT solutions such as DISC’s NSM Series libraries. Located in the Triad region of North Carolina which covers Greensboro, High Point, Winston Salem, Asheboro and Burlington, PC Products serves the general business, education and government markets.

“We began our partnership with PC-Products at the end of 2002 and they have been a valuable partner since,” said Pat Edwards Southeast Region Sales Manager for DISC. “It’s a rare combination of technical background and expertise, coupled with a focus on how to best serve their customer, that really makes our relationship with PC-Products work.”

Vice-President of PC Products Allen Blake added, “DISC has given us an added dimension to our diverse product offerings. Now we are able to go to a customer and give them a complete IT solution including installation and support. The fact that DISC’s nearline storage systems can actually make an IT Admin’s job easier, by adding capacity and shrinking backup windows, is a great way for us to get our foot in the door with customers.”