FalconStor File-Interface De-Dupe System Available

FalconStor Software, Inc. announced that the FalconStor File-interface Deduplication System is generally available, targeting both small-to-medium-size businesses and large enterprises looking to reduce storage space and costs by writing backup data more efficiently to disk.

FalconStor FDS opens up a new market for FalconStor Software by offering block-level deduplication of backup data via a simple file interface. Now customers have a choice between a file interface or a VTL interface or both, depending on data center requirements. FalconStor FDS extends the company’s highly scalable data deduplication technology – already widespread as part of the industry-leading FalconStor Virtual Tape Library (VTL) solution – to network-attached storage (NAS) disk-to-disk backup environments.

"Like our popular VTL with deduplication software, FalconStor FDS is designed to ease into any backup environment without disruption and to dramatically reduce storage consumption," said Wayne Lam, co-founder and vice president of product management for FalconStor Software. "It is yet another solution from FalconStor that helps IT managers at small companies and large enterprises alike do more with less during a time when organizations are evaluating technologies that can help cut IT expenses."

"As the second-largest telecommunications provider in Switzerland, our communication solutions for mobile telephony and Internet services demand an efficient and always-on IT infrastructure to ensure that customers have continuous access to the online tools we provide them," said Sandor Orban, IT specialist at Sunrise Telecom Incorporated. "Our FalconStor VTL and data deduplication solution delivers exceptional performance and efficiency in addressing our tape backup and recovery needs. With its versatile file interface, FalconStor FDS effectively addresses disk usage by our disk-to-disk backup operations and provides us with an easy restore of important data – saving our business both time and money."

FDS maximizes interoperability with all data sources including disk-to-disk backup, database application downloads and archive repositories. With built-in many-to-one replication capability, the file-interface system provides global deduplication by replicating from remote sites to a central data repository across the wide-area network. It also can be deployed in any physical or virtual infrastructure environment, offering file-level access to a central block-level single instance repository. FalconStor FDS uses a configurable concurrent or post-process deduplication method for maximum end-user flexibility. The product supports all major backup software, directly accepts Oracle RMAN, Microsoft SQL and other database dumps, and provides integrated data replication and global deduplication.

"DataDirect Networks is extending the capabilities of our Extreme Storage portfolio to serve a broader range of bandwidth and capacity-bound storage environments," said Jeff Denworth, vice president of marketing for DataDirect Networks. "In cases where customers have extreme storage requirements, we find they also have intense data protection requirements, where features like rapid backup, deduplication and energy efficiency are important. Through partnerships such as FalconStor, we can provide a comprehensive suite of data protection capabilities, which now includes storage deduplication with a NAS interface, a feature that will help our enterprise customers better protect and cost-effectively store their critical assets."

"Data deduplication is in high customer demand, and Spectra Logic’s nTier product line offers global replication and deduplication capabilities to tens of thousands of existing tape library users," said Molly Rector, vice president, marketing and product management, at Spectra Logic. "We are leveraging FalconStor VTL and deduplication, and the addition of the FalconStor File-interface Deduplication System will enable us to address the NAS-based disk-to-disk backup market."

FalconStor FDS Pricing and Availability
FalconStor FDS is available as a traditional software package ready for installation on any hardware appliance with replication included; the U.S. list price starts at $13,000. As a virtual appliance without replication, U.S. list starts at $5,000, plus $2,000 for the replication option.