PivotStor announced a broader range of scalability options for companies with small- to medium-sized storage environments. PivotStor said its new AP Series TL4000EX and TL8000EX scalable tape library expansion modules are designed to help customers meet the challenge of continuing data growth, even as they seek easier and more reliable data protection. PivotStor’s TL4000EX and TL8000EX are the latest offerings in the company’s comprehensive tape automation portfolio, which also include 2U, 4U and 8U tape library platforms, and which are sold exclusively through integrators and resellers.

PivotStor’s user-friendly, web-based interface allows companies to manage their storage needs more cost-effectively with a minimum of IT staff resources. For instance, they can easily double the number of slots available in a PivotStor TL4000 automated tape library, from 48 up to 96 slots by simply adding a TL4000EX module, or from 96 to 192 slots in a PivotStor TL8000 8U library by adding a TL8000EX module. This enables companies to effectively store more than 300 terabytes of corporate-critical information under standard 2:1 compression using LTO-4 tape cartridges.

“Our customers’ data storage requirements are consistently growing and changing,” said Dan Nickel, president at Nitech, a storage value-added reseller (VAR) based in Orange County, California. “Solutions like PivotStor’s TL4000EX and TL8000EX tape library expansion modules help them meet those needs. They can quickly add capacity within minutes, giving them flexibility with mixed connectivity support. It helps them grow without incurring significantly higher costs for hardware or IT staff; that’s a real benefit in today’s business economy.”

With a starting list price of less than $7,000, PivotStor’s TL4000EX and TL8000EX library expansion modules provide customers with additional flexibility and choice by supporting both full-height and half-height LTO tape drive formats. In addition, they operate in both storage area network (SAN) and direct-attach (DAS) environments and offer advanced library functionality such as multiple drive types and interfaces, including all of today’s most implemented connections, such as Fibre Channel, iSCSI, SAS and SCSI LVD. Easy to operate and maintain, the TL4000EX and TL8000EX modules include integrated set-up capability that enables customers to easily partition the library and schedule backups.

“Our newly-introduced tape library expansion modules are ideal for small- and mid-tier environments,” said Jack Corrao, PivotStor’s President and Chief Operating Officer. “They provide an easy-to-use, reliable and scalable solution that allows customers to easily migrate to the next level of data protection as their storage needs grows. This enables them to focus their attention on driving their business, and to worry less about the logistics involved in backup, recovery and archiving.”

The TL4000EX and TL8000EX tape library modules will be available early in the third quarter of 2008 through PivotStor’s network of channel and distribution partners.

PivotStor

Nitech