MTIC News:
MTI Technology Corp.'s Vivant Storage Solutions Selected By Information Manufacturing Corp.
- High Availability and Scalability Provide IMC Customers With Online Access To Their Business Intelligence Materials -
ANAHEIM, Calif., Nov 14, 2000 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- MTI Technology Corp. (Nasdaq: MTIC chart, msgs), a leading provider of storage and business solutions with nearly $90 million in Fibre Channel SAN based Vivant System revenues, today announced that Information Manufacturing Corporation (IMC), a pioneering document conversion service provider, has chosen MTI's Vivant storage solutions to provide high availability and safeguard IMC's capabilities to ensure its customers have online access to their business intelligence materials.
Based in Rocket Center, West Virginia, IMC is an Application Service Provider (ASP) that provides comprehensive document conversion services and hosts mission-critical information and business applications. "We like to describe ourselves as an ASP with infrastructure," said Robert Dash, chief technology officer for IMC. "We started off simply as a document conversion company, scanning and indexing paper. Then we started to host the data for our customers."
Focusing on large government and corporate enterprises that rely on enormous amounts of printed documents for an archival record, including contracts, policies, photographs, maps and engineering drawings, IMC transforms these from their existing formats to those best suited for each enterprise's long-range needs. "We convert massive quantities of paper documents into accessible and useful information," Dash explained. "We have an 8,000-square-foot data center with optical and magnetic storage capabilities on clustered servers. By using MTI's Vivant storage solutions along with optical juke boxes, we are able to host data for our customers using our document management systems."
MTI's Vivant storage solutions provide multiple terabytes of Fibre Channel based, high-availability, fault tolerant enterprise class storage in support of IMC Web-based applications with Oracle and SQL server databases on a Storage Area Network (SAN) architecture. MTI's flexible SAN connectivity is being used to support the company's dynamic environment.
"Using MTI Data Services, we designed a Vivant storage solution that delivers Continuous Access to Online Data(SM) while allowing virtually unlimited scalability to accommodate future growth," said Russ Ritchie, director of product marketing at MTI. "This total solution also provides the necessary flexibility to adapt to new business requirements, which are often unpredictable, and allows IMC to focus on its core business rather than spending valuable time managing its storage."
"When we went looking for a storage solution, we wanted one that was affordable, offered high availability and was scalable," Dash said. "High availability is critical because the data has to be online at all times. And scalability is extremely important because by the end of the year our expected storage requirements will be at or exceed a petabyte. We'll need every bit of that or more because we've just signed another contract with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), for which we've already scanned and indexed 21 million weather observation maps. We've experienced more than 40 percent growth and have already booked $22 million worth of work for next year, which directly equates to what our storage needs will be."
This is good news for IMC -- and West Virginia. The state has awarded the company substantial contracts based on its state-of-the-art storage facility, as well as its dedication to providing significant employment opportunities for the state's workforce to join the global information economy. According to IMC's president and CEO Robert Hytner, this success can be partially attributed to the working relationship between MTI and IMC.
"Enterprises find it increasingly difficult to manage their storage infrastructures. The tasks of storage architecture, including scaling, security, database organization and backup, always seem to require personnel and hours beyond those available," Hytner said. "IMC's relationship with MTI, which is based on a mutual understanding of the explosive growth in the storage industry, is strengthened by mutual respect for the value of shared technical resources and customer knowledge. This has resulted in an improved delivery of both IMC and MTI products and services -- and improved business intelligence for our customers."
According to Dash, IMC's goal is nothing less than to own the world of records. "If you look at our model, instead of going after the high- transaction ASP software, we're targeting the low-transaction ASP software," he said. "We want to be an electronic warehouse rather than a transaction shop. IMC's perfect client is one who, by the end of the year, will have 20 terabytes of data stored online, and with only one user who'll access the data perhaps 20 or 40 times a year. These low-transaction applications are often necessary because federal government regulations require long-term storage of many types of information."
Hytner concluded: "As a conversion service provider, IMC is in the business of creating digital images. To empower our service provider offerings, including knowledge management and hosting services, IMC must also be in the business of scalable and secure storage. With MTI's focus and industry leadership added to IMC's conversion, knowledge and applications service provider offerings, both companies will be empowered to meet and exceed rising customer expectations."
About MTI Technology Corporation
MTI's mission is to provide Continuous Access to Online Information(SM) through fault-tolerant, cross-platform data storage servers for the enterprise. MTI develops, manufactures, sells and services data server solutions for Global 2000 companies on a worldwide basis. Headquartered in Anaheim, Calif., the company offers services and support in the United States and Europe and complies with ISO 9001 quality system standards. For further information, please visit the company's Web site at: www.mti.com.
About Information Manufacturing Corporation
Information Manufacturing Corporation (IMC), an Applications Service Provider (ASP), delivers comprehensive document conversion services and hosting for mission-critical information and business applications. A fast growing, innovative, entrepreneurial company committed to its customers' success, IMC has been described as "one of the most advanced document conversion service bureaus in the United States" by Washington Technology magazine. The company's management team has extensive experience and an outstanding track record in the creation and growth of business. IMC is the only company using proven technology to transform high volumes of raw data into secure, user-friendly, readily accessible information via the Internet. For more information, please contact Scott Kline, vice president of sales, at skline@imcwv.com.
This press release includes forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the anticipated storage needs of IMC, which are subject to change. There can be no assurance that IMC's needs will increase or that MTI will provide any additional storage to IMC. The actual results may differ materially from those described in any forward-looking statement. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ are set forth in the company's periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-K for the year ended April 1, 2000.
MTI is a registered trademark and Continuous Access to Online Information is a service mark of MTI Technology Corp. All other company, brand or product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.
Source: MTI Technology Corp.
Contact:
Investor Relations, Frank Yoshino, Treasurer of MTI Technology
Corp., 714-693-2775, fyoshino@mti.com; or Public Relations, Natalie J. Mock,
Vice President of ContentOne: Marketing and Public Relations, 760-479-1380,
Ext. 102, Natalie@contentone.com, for MTI Technology Corp.
URL: mti.com |
