InfoStor : NetApp cuts cost of managing unstructured data, December 2006 Page 1

By Kevin Komiega

December 7, 2006—Network Appliance is getting into the search and content services game in an effort to help users rein in the costs associated with managing and storing unstructured data. To that end, the company this week announced three new appliances in its Information Server 1200 (IS1200) family, which is based on platforms from Kazeon.

The Information Server appliances were built to give users more visibility into their unstructured files through reporting, migration, search, and content management technologies.

The IS1200-FRM (File Reporting and Migration) appliance, IS1200-SA (Search Appliance), and IS1200-ECS (Enterprise Content Services) appliance are all based on the core IS1200 architecture.

The new products will be available in the US and Europe this month with worldwide availability beginning in February 2007.

"The new products are focused on three different customer problems—controlling compliance and business risks, improving operational efficiency, and reducing the cost of keeping and managing unstructured data," says Ravi Thota, director of product marketing for data and storage management at Network Appliance.

The IS1200-FRM is designed to generate reports on file data and facilitate automated, tiered storage architectures through the use of built-in migration capabilities. Users can take action on data based on file attributes and migrate files to the most appropriate storage tier.

The IS1200-SA is optimized to help users with file indexing, search, and restoration of individual files from file backup systems. NetApp's Thota likens the functionality of the IS1200-SA to that of Google's desktop search tool. "Think of it as a Google Desktop, but for data that's been in your backups for years," he says.

The IS1200-ECS appliance is the compliance component of the product trio. It offers content-aware classification, search, migration, and compliance capabilities. Thota says combining the IS1200-ECS with NetApp's Retention Manager software allows for a smooth integration with the company's SnapLock software. The result is an efficient process for storing compliance data in an unalterable state for pre-determined retention periods based on corporate policies and relevant regulations.

The IS1200-FRM, IS1200-SA, and IS1200-ECS are the latest products in the IS1200 appliance family, which also includes software such as SnapSearch, Transparent Migration Manager, and Retention Manager. The new systems are priced from about $40,000.

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