Crossroads to Launch Archive Product in October 2011

Crossroads Systems, Inc. announced plans to launch a tape-based archive product that leverages the new Linear Tape File System (LTFS) technology. It’s designed to address the need for low cost and highly reliable long-term data preservation for both enterprise and SMB organizations.

President and CEO Rob Sims and David Cerf, vice president of business development, attended the 2011 NAB Show and Tape Summit 2011, a private event designed to provide comprehensive updates on the current and future state of the tape storage market.

Crossroads’ tape-based archive will be offered through an early adopter program starting in July, with general availability scheduled for October. The new solution will serve as an online archive for tier 3 data (defined as write once and read rarely), presenting itself as disk storage, but incorporating both disk for fast file storage and retrieval, as well as physical tape for cost-effective, long-term capacity storage.

Transformative Technology
Crossroads’ product will leverage LTFS technology to usher in a new era for tape. Files can be written directly to tape and read independently of operating systems or ISV applications. This relieves tape of its age long dependency on backup applications to store and retrieve data from tape.

The tape archive solution delivers faster access to data, greater data mobility, and independence from software and hardware constraints. As an enterprise-class digital archive, it provides granular policies, encryption, replication and monitoring capabilities to meet security and business continuity needs.

The caching and performance optimization capabilities will address data access or fast file reads from the tape archive. Mountable as CIFS/NFS file share, providing a network view, and upholding standard file properties and actions, it will offer a Web-based GUI, easy installation and scalability – meeting online digital archive needs for an organization of nearly any size.

"Both of the events we’re attending this week are important venues for Crossroads to communicate news of our planned product launch to end users and industry influencers," Sims said. "As we continue to collaborate with our customer advisory board to enhance product functionality, we’re pleased that the product remains on schedule to meet its July early adopter program dates as well as the October general availability."