2010-02-26: PoINT now also supports HIT Netzon Blu-ray jukeboxes
Siegen. The list of supported devices is continuously increasing at PoINT Software & Systems GmbH. Thus, the storage specialist announced today that the Blu-ray jukeboxes made by Human Interactive Technologies (HIT) GmbH can now even be controlled by the solutions PoINT Jukebox Manager and PoINT Storage Manager as well as by PoINT Toolkits. PoINT users are therefore now able to integrate HIT Netzon jukeboxes, fulfilling all requirements regarding compliant long-term archiving, seamlessly into existing applications. The storage specialist presents the integration live at the PoINT booth (hall 2, booth D40) at CeBIT 2010.
The optical Blu-ray technology has established itself being a compatible medium for long-term archiving in the professional storage market. PoINT Software & Systems GmbH consequently supports the de-facto standard, offering its customers the best-possible usage of this innovative technology.
The storage specialist based in Siegen enhanced its solutions PoINT Jukebox Manager and PoINT Storage Manager as well as its toolkits in order to provide users of HIT Netzon Blu-ray jukeboxes with the performance of PoINT solutions.
PoINT Jukebox Manager is an economically and ecologically reasonable solution for secure archival of business critical data on optical media. Therefore, the product provides a standardized file systems access (CIFS) for applications. The integrated automatic media check controls optical media and files for their readability in definable periods or on manual trigger. The administrator receives a notification in case of errors which enables him to create copies if necessary. Long-term availability of data on optical storage is even increased in combination with classical protection methods like mirroring of media or clustering of servers.
Version 7.0, which will be presented by PoINT Software & Systems GmbH at CeBIT, supports besides the HIT Netzon Blu-ray jukeboxes the new operating systems Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 and additional storage hardware. Among those is for example the professional Panasonic ADA (Advanced Disc for Archive) single drive. Version 7 also supports the new UDF versions 2.5/2.6.
Moreover, PoINT Storage Manager as “software only” solution supports HIT Netzon jukeboxes, which thus can be integrated seamlessly into a tiered storage concept. Infrequently used data can be moved from a performance optimized Tier 1 storage to a cost optimized tier 2 or tier 3 storage and replaced by links – transparent for both users and applications. Files are accessed via the original path without changes in the applications. This innovative “pass through” mechanism ensures that migrated data is delivered directly from three different tiers to the application. Thus, files do not need to be restored in the Tier 1 storage as usual for other products. The entire storage system may consist of a combination of diverse storage technologies (e.g. SATA RAID and LTO tape or BD optical) to benefit from the specific advantages and to ensure safety by redundancy. By this approach PoINT Storage Manager does not only reduce acquisition costs for storage hardware but also optimizes the backup process. As migrated data has not to be protected once again – it is already stored redundantly on configured second level storage – both storage capacity (e.g. as less tapes are necessary) and time expenditure for backup are saved.
PoINT Toolkits enable the integration of Blu-ray jukeboxes – now even HIT jukeboxes – into existing workflows and applications. Offering a uniform Application programming Interface (API) the toolkits provide functions for setup, initialization, jukebox management, robotics and media handling. The development of individual device drivers will be redundant.
PoINT cooperates with HIT since the foundation of HIT ten years ago. Both companies have for example realized an archiving solution with more than two petabyte archive data volume at 36 Chinese locations of the world’s second largest bank, the China Construction Bank (CCB), together. This solution consists of PoINT Jukebox Manager and the previous HIT Netzon jukebox models based on CD/DVD technology and has proven well in numerous installations.
About PoINT
PoINT Software & Systems GmbH, situated in Siegen, is specialized in the development of software products and systems solutions for storage and management of data using all available mass storage technologies like hard disks, magnetic tapes and optical media. Close collaboration with leading hardware manufacturers enables an early support of innovative storage technologies. Besides these complete solutions PoINT also offers its know-how as Toolkits, which can be easily integrated in other applications by the programming interface. Furthermore PoINT projects entire storage solutions and provides consultancy with its long-term and versatile experience. PoINT products are distributed by 50 partners in more than 25 countries world-wide and have been installed successfully in more than 2 million installations. The PoINT product portfolio ranges from recording and duplication of CD/DVD and Blu-ray Discs, professional audio- and video recording to business critical network storage solutions.