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Technology Stocks : Network Appliance -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mtnlady who wrote (2313)	2/9/2000 10:25:00 AM
From: DownSouth	Respond to of 10934

NTAP is in no way competing with LGTO, VRTS, et al. SnapManager is a feature meant exclusively for MS Exchange data bases (e-mail). It is based on the NTAP SNAPSHOT feature, but engineered to solve specific technical issues facing MSE administrators. SNAPSHOT is a feature inherent to NTAP's WAFL file system. The nature of WAFL allows periodic snapshots of the entire file system to be "saved" buy writing only the directory structure into a Snapshot directory. By accessing the Snapshot directory, the data as it was at that moment in time can be retrieved, even though the filer remains active with record adds, updates and deletes. The sys admin can define how many Snapshot directories are to be kept and at what frequency they are created. Thus, to backup a file or the entire filer data set, the filer does not have to be brought down. Simply a Snapshot is created (it takes a few seconds, at most), and the backup or data analysis or application reports or whatever can be run using the Snapshot directory. Normal operations and user interactions continue without interruption without worry about the "currency" of the data being operated on by backup, reporting, etc. So, VRTS, LGTO, and any developer who wishes can create intefaces to NTAP filers taking advantage of the Snapshot feature. That is what the NDMP standard is all about. Thus it is an Open Proprietary Architecture. One conundrum for potential NTAP competitors is how to provide Snapshot-like capabilities without violating patents for the WAFL file system. It is inherent in the WAFL method of writing and reading records/files.