PoINT Three-Tiered Storage Software, Policy-Based

Storage capacity is expensive. Disregard of compliance is risky. Obsolete storage systems cause trouble. Any IT manager will agree with these statements. PoINT Storage Manager provides a software solution which addresses these three issues by an integrated Tiered Storage approach.


 
Increasing numbers of companies realize the benefits of the Tiered Storage approach. Major reasons for the implementation of a Tiered Storage infrastructure are compliance and storage economics which both include requirements for migration of data. With PoINT Storage Manager, PoINT Software & Systems GmbH, as an ISV, provides a solution that can be integrated in almost any infrastructure independent of the storage hardware used.

The product offers the following functions:

• Migration of inactive data by automated, policy-based storage tiering/ HSM
• Compliance by transparent archiving
• Migration across multiple diverse storage systems

The benefit of a three-Tiered Storage architecture: Expensive primary storage can be used more efficient by migrating rarely used data to lower cost devices and to archive. This normally represents up to 80% of the total data. Expensive upgrade of primary storage is no longer necessary. In addition the backup process is relieved. PoINT Storage Manager ensures that data is still available within the file system of primary storage after migration to cost-effective secondary storage (e.g. SATA RAID). Unlike other storage solutions, access to the requested file is provided directly to the application from the secondary storage by a pass thru mechanism, and data is not re-sent to the primary storage first.
 
Additionally to maintain compliance, files can be archived by a policy-based mechanism into the Archive Tier of the three-Tiered Storage model. PoINT Storage Manager ensures that archived files are secured against modification and, if requested, attached with a retention period. The key advantage of PoINT's hardware independent software solution is the support of many storage technologies (disk, tape, optical, cloud, etc.) and device types (DAS, NAS, CAS, libraries, etc.).

Included migration functions of PoINT Storage Manager allow that storage systems can be replaced by new technologies and equipment without interruption of operations. The background migration avoids downtimes and ensures that all files remain under access while migration process.

PoINT Software & Systems GmbH will present the software with various storage peripheral devices at this year's CeBIT.
 
PoINT products are distributed by about 50 partners in more than 25 countries worldwide and have been installedin more than 2 million installations. The PoINT product portfolio ranges from recording and duplication of CD/DVD and Blu-ray Discs, professional audio- and video recording to business critical network storage solutions.