Austin Powder Customer of FalconStor Via Partner Chi Corp.

FalconStor Software, Inc. announced that Austin Powder is using FalconStor Network Storage Server (NSS) to virtualize primary storage in its Microsoft Hyper-V virtual server environment. FalconStor NSS helps Austin Powder improve storage efficiency and reduce costs with storage virtualization and application-aware data protection capabilities, including real-time, synchronous mirroring and volume snapshots.

Austin Powder manufactures industrial explosives and accessories and provides blasting services to customers worldwide. The company’s goal was to create a highly efficient, virtualized pool of storage for its virtual servers, improve its data backup and disaster recovery (DR) processes and lay the foundation for a remote DR site in the near future. In addition, the open architecture of FalconStor NSS allowed Austin Powder to purchase the best storage arrays available at the lowest cost. With the help of Chi Corporation, a FalconStor channel partner, FalconStor NSS, in concert with Symantec Backup Exec, now provides backup for Austin Powder and data recovery for all business-critical applications, including Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server databases and e-mail.

"FalconStor NSS significantly improved our data backup process and now allows us to recover an entire machine with applications up and running often within just minutes of beginning the process," said Chris Benco, network administrator of Austin Powder. "In addition, FalconStor NSS has reduced our server deployment time to less than an hour, and also increased virtual server performance – we have created a true testing environment that allows us to clone virtual servers in minutes."

Austin Powder considered solutions from 11 other vendors, including Dell EqualLogic, and ultimately chose FalconStor NSS because of the flexibility, customization and control it provides. Austin Powder uses two FalconStor NSS appliances for its primary storage area network (SAN) where Austin Powder stores three terabytes of data from its 60 remote sites and three data centers. The company has plans to deploy the WAN-optimized remote replication capability of FalconStor NSS when the new DR site is established.

"FalconStor is dedicated to helping customers realize the full benefit of server virtualization with virtual storage that enables flexible server deployment and the latest in disk-based data protection and recovery processes," said Wendy Petty, vice president of North American sales at FalconStor Software. "With FalconStor NSS, new disk resources for virtual machines can be created on the fly and entire DR sites can be built on virtual server technology, significantly reducing the cost of disaster recovery."