Digistore Solutions International Signs OEM Distribution Agreement With EMC

Australian company Digistore Solutions International has signed a global OEM Distribution Agreement to bundle EMC Retrospect Professional for Windows software from EMC Corporation with DSSI’s Centurion DiscHub Workgroup product.

Centurion DiscHub Workgroup
EMC Retrospect For Windows Bundle

The Centurion DiscHub Workgroup is an innovative and easy to use hardware appliance, being an optical disc library for data storage, combined with software to deliver read/write network access to end users through a single drive letter with folders and files. Targeting small to medium businesses, the Centurion DiscHub Workgroup Edition, together with EMC Retrospect Professional, enables SMBs to meet their archive and compliance needs in a way that is both easy to use and affordable.

"The SMB is facing more stringent compliance obligations every year, with legislation requiring them to retain a greater volume of data for much longer periods of time," said Geoff MacLeod-Smith, CEO of DSSI. "By combining EMC Retrospect Professional with our Centurion DiscHub, the SMB can ensure that their data is captured, encrypted and stored on long-life compliant media (optical disc), and they retain access to their data at all times because it is in near-line storage. The Workgroup software interfaces with Retrospect and ensures that backup occurs as a Disc-to-Disc operation, so there is no need for users to load and unload media individually or manage a poorly structured cupboard full of discs."

Today, business is confronted with an explosion in the growth of data. Companies find themselves now storing data that is directly relevant to their businesses – but that often contains personal user data. With Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and other legislation, data retention duties have in many cases shifted from as little as two years to six and seven years and in some cases, indefinitely. For example: The Ohio State University requires Curriculum Development Documentation, Board of Regents Reports and other information to be retained indefinitely.  Some leading academic organizations already have a policy to retain certain data for one hundred years or more with the requirement that the data remains accessible at all times. For example, the University of Massachusetts defines Permanent Records as those which will be retained indefinitely or for at least 100 years.  With its innovative technology, DSSI is making the optical jukebox affordable for the SMB where it was previously only available through alternatives at the Enterprise level because of very significant cost.

"This combination of products is a real point of difference in the current market," said Matthew Johnson, Director of North American Sales Retrospect. "It provides the functionality of an optical library that you see in an Enterprise environment for a fraction of the cost, so it is ideal for the Small to Medium Business that needs to satisfy its data compliance obligations and at the same time, retain access to the growing volume of fixed data that it stores."