FalconStor Clears Storage Picture for Norddeutscher Rundfunk
biz.yahoo.com
Monday February 6, 6:30 am ET
Hamburg-Based Media Broadcaster Deploys IPStor Software for Efficient Backup and Recovery and High Data Availability
HAMBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2006--FalconStor Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: FALC), a leading developer of network storage software solutions, today announced that Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), a prominent media broadcaster in Northern Germany, has implemented IPStor software for high data availability and accelerated backup and recovery. The IPStor® solution, deployed by channel partner Itiso GmbH for NDR's Fibre Channel SAN, proved to be cost effective, saving the broadcast network 30 percent over competing storage solutions.
"We wanted to improve our backup and recovery operations, and we were looking for a storage solution that not only provided maximum data uptime, but could also manage the heterogeneous platforms and applications in our IT environment," said HansNorbert Heinsen, system planner, Norddeutscher Rundfunk. "IPStor software's innovative approach has given us more features at lower cost, and has immediately saved us 30 percent of our planned expenditure. We were very impressed with IPStor's flexibility, as it has enabled us to achieve more than our initial goals of implementing a sound data protection strategy."
Important to NDR was accelerating backup and recovery, and eliminating all possible Single Point Of Failure (SPOF) vulnerabilities in its previous IT infrastructure. NDR's initial goal was to acquire a new backup infrastructure, but the additional features and the cost-effectiveness of the IPStor solution made it the obvious choice for the broadcaster.
NDR was able to incorporate its previous storage investments in its new IT environment, now consisting of a 2Gb Fibre Channel SAN, with servers from Digital, Fujitsu Siemens and HP running Oracle, SAP, SQL and VMWare applications on Microsoft Windows, Linux, Tru64 and Sun Solaris platforms. Storage subsystems include EMC CLARiiON, HP StorageWorks and Infortrend EonStor. The IPStor solution is enabling NDR's staff of four IT administrators to manage 21 servers and about 10 terabytes of data, at a growth rate of 30 percent a year.
NDR is leveraging several optional IPStor software features. TimeMark®, working in conjunction with its database Snapshot Agent for Oracle, provides snapshots with transactional integrity and point-in-time consistency during data replication for instant recovery to a known good point in time. In conjunction with the ZeroImpact(TM) Backup option, TimeMark enables NDR to use its existing backup software to perform full, incremental, and differential backup/restore, something its backup software cannot offer alone.
NDR is also using the DynaPath® Agent, which maximizes data availability across the SAN by performing load-balancing, transparent failover, and fail-back services so that application servers can maximize availability and performance, with no single point of failure in NDR's SAN.
"Resilient storage environments are essential for leading media organizations, such as Norddeutscher Rundfunk, to protect their high-volume data operations," said Guy Berlo, regional director, central region, FalconStor. "NDR wanted a solution to solve its storage challenges, while flexible enough to meet future storage requirements, and their choice of an IPStor-powered solution has enabled them to cost-effectively manage their storage resources, while improving the efficiency of their operations."
About Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) is a modern media corporation based in Hamburg with an attractive as well as successful radio and television programme in northern Germany. It was established in 1955 by treaty with the federal states Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. In 1992, after the reunification of Germany, the state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was included. |
