ProStor InfiniVault Model 35 ($34,995)

ProStor Systems announced the availability of its InfiniVault Model 35, a scalable, long-term storage solution that offers an automated data verification capability and more online disk than previous InfiniVault models.

Automated data verification checks the integrity of data stored on the InfiniVault RDX cartridges, then repairs lost data by reconstructing the cartridge. Data verification can be manual or scheduled, and the administrator is notified of cartridge failure. By ensuring the integrity of data stored on the RDX cartridge, this feature offers users a reason to move long-term data retention off of tape, a medium known to suffer from data loss.

"A crucial requirement – in fact perhaps the crucial requirement – of any long-term data storage platform is that the data must be able to be read or restored when needed without corruption," said Mark Peters, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "Tape has historically been questionable in this area, yet frankly it does not matter whether you use tape, disk, punch cards or yesterday’s newspaper – you must have confidence in the integrity of your data. ProStor’s new automated data verification facility takes the attractiveness of its RDX removable disk storage up another important notch."

"The InfiniVault Model 35 is a significant step up for us," according to Carla Halyard, principal systems analyst at Marin County, California. "We’re confident in the reliability and performance of InfiniVault and RDX for our Document Management Storage solution and hope to eventually expand the use of the InfiniVault to include our email archive and backups. The installation was the easiest we’ve experienced in a long time, and moving to the InfiniVault will let us reduce our annual maintenance costs and server requirements associated with proprietary media management software we no longer need."

The InfiniVault Model 35 also offers users a 50 percent performance increase – up to 270 GB/hour – over the Model 30, which it replaces in the InfiniVault lineup. The Model 35 offers 8TB of RAID-5 online disk, with support for up to 100 TB of removable RDX disk. The boost in performance and online disk gives users the flexibility to increase the amount of data available for rapid access and retrieval.

ProStor InfiniVault is a storage system designed to balance the need to cost-effectively manage increasing amounts of information over extended periods of time. A combination of fixed RAID disk and RDX provide complete data protection, continuous data access, security, and retention management throughout the data’s extended lifespan. The Model 35 is for long-term storage and offsite storage for disaster recovery purposes for banking/finance institutions, city and county governments, and digital video archiving.

"We selected the InfiniVault Model 35 based on a strong recommendation from our document management provider," said Brian Hosier, corporate applications manager at American Casino and Entertainment Properties, LLC. "We were impressed with the expansion capabilities of the InfiniVault Model 35, and the improved usability compared to our previous solution. We’re planning to use the InfiniVault to archive data from multiple applications, including two different document management systems."

"Our early customer success with the Model 35 demonstrates the value of data verification and increased online disk," according to Ian Duncan, vice president of marketing and strategy at ProStor Systems. "Adding online disk capacity and performance to the InfiniVault Model 35 gives our customers increased flexibility to store data in the most appropriate tier, whether that’s online for rapid access, nearline for timely recovery or reuse, or in the archive tier, providing access to large amounts of data for long periods of time."

The InfiniVault Model 35 was available February 1 for $34,995.