XAM Compliant Application by StorageSwitch

The first XAM (eXtensible Access Method) compliant application was released by StorageSwitch LLC. The StorageSwitch FileSystem Gateway for XAM (the StorageSwitch) provides industry standard access into a new generation of fixed content storage devices.

SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association) approved and released the XAM specification in July 2008 to enable the advanced functionality required for fixed content data storage. XAM provides a storage interface specification for non-vendor specific implementations including retention management, object authenticity, transparent object portability, meta data association, and other fixed content attributes.

StorageSwitch provides a standard file system presentation (CIFS, NFS, FTP, WebDAV, HTTP) to users for access to XAM compliant storage. EMC Centera is currently the only generally available XAM compliant storage device. A number of other storage vendors, including SUN, HP, HDS, IBM and others are committed to the XAM standard.

The StorageSwitch gateway architecture provides high-availability, scalability, and performance, supporting critical customer requirements for access to files. StorageSwitch keeps data accessible with sub-second failovers – transparent to their network clients. Tested to over a billion files in a single multi-protocol mount point, StorageSwitch supports even the most demanding file system environments.

John Takita, business manager for StorageSwitchs’ distributor ITOCHU, says: “Adding XAM to the StorageSwitch brings an important capability to the core product we’ve been reselling for nearly 6 years. Their product is robust, scalable and flexible. We’ve placed it in many of our large customers, who have deployed it for large scale, enterprise class compliant storage.”

StorageSwitch CEO Clark Hodge speaks about the release. “Fixed content storage is the hottest segment in storage today. It encompasses archive, compliance, governance, information life-cycle management (ILM), and long term data preservation. This variety of applications forces vendors to provide stronger platforms for data storage, protection, integrity and authenticity. XAM meets those requirements without locking the user into a vendor. XAM storage is the future of fixed content storage and the StorageSwitch FileSystem Gateway for XAM provides the access.”

Hodge adds: “We accelerate adoption of the new XAM standard by enabling all applications that support file system access to not only to talk to XAM storage, but also to take advantage of it’s unique benefits.”

XAM removes the traditional proprietary vendor-lock on fixed content storage. Now, meta data, authenticity checks, and retention policies stay irrefutably with the data object, without the requirement of proprietary protocols. StorageSwitch puts this together with standard file systems to enable organizations to gain the benefits of XAM now.