Computer Network Technology Announces UltraNet Storage Director
PR Newswire - October 30, 1997 13:36
Industry's First Storage Area Network Solution Consolidates Disparate Storage Systems Without Additional Purchases or Resources
MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Computer Network Technology Corp.
(CNT) (Nasdaq: CMNT) today announced its new UltraNet Storage Director, a
high-speed switching platform that allows users to safely move and share data
among diverse servers and storage systems. This industry leading
interconnection of storage devices breaks traditional storage barriers by
enabling fast, cost-effective server and storage consolidation among IBM
OS/390, Microsoft Windows NT, and open systems (UNIX) storage system
platforms. With the UltraNet Storage Director, network managers can take
advantage of rapid changes in technology while protecting their investments in
storage and server platforms.
"We are using CNT's Channelink product successfully in our data centers to
provide users with better access to critical information," said John Noe,
principal member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories,
Albuquerque, NM. "With the technology in the new UltraNet Storage Director,
we will be able to offer faster access to our remote data centers and
facilities. This is part of an overall development in storage infrastructure
currently underway."
"Computer Network Technology is leading the way in the emerging SAN
(Storage Area Network) technology with this new product," said Mark Knittel,
vice president of marketing and business development at CNT. "The UltraNet
Storage Director is a key component for a SAN because it supports applications
that utilize external and centralized storage as well as remote clustering.
It lowers the cost of important data solutions and reduces the risk of
catastrophic failure of mission-critical data systems."
The SAN is a high-speed network that establishes a direct connection
between storage devices, thereby externalizing storage from the server and
allowing information to be shared among multiple 'host' servers without
affecting performance of the primary network.
"Initial response to the UltraNet Storage Director has been favorable,"
said Knittel. "An early shipment program has already generated more than
$2 million in product revenue. Customer demand has exceeded early projections
and an order backlog for several customers is expected to be satisfied in the
remainder of 1997. To date, seven customers have products operating at their
facilities, with additional systems at EMC and IBM test labs."
"Even when data center budgets are flat, workloads are constantly
increasing," said John McArthur, program director for storage systems research
at International Data Corporation (IDC). "Resource sharing is one way for
businesses to operate within these constraints. The UltraNet Storage Director
allows enterprises to share storage resources by implementing storage area
networks, prolonging the life and making better use of existing resources."
Advanced Storage Applications
The UltraNet Storage Director offers an open architecture incorporating
industry standard hardware, network protocols, management and operating
software to provide a tightly integrated, fault-tolerant, and highly
manageable platform for use in mission-critical storage networking
applications. This product is driven and managed by UltraNet SAN Software
(USS). This software resides at the core of the product, and is responsible
for the operation, configuration and management of the central system
components, the mid-plane switch and system service monitors. The Director
supports a variety of storage applications including disk mirroring,
backup/restore, archive/retrieve, data migration, shared storage and shared
data.
The CNT UltraNet Storage Director product is a multi-gigabit switching
platform that provides a high-performance SAN infrastructure with support for
Fibre Channel, SCSI and ESCON technology, along with interoperability between
these different channel architectures. The product also leverages high-speed
networks with support for ATM, T3/E3 and FDDI.
Pricing And Availability
The UltraNet Storage Director, a multi-slot chassis product, is currently
available worldwide in 12-slot or 6-slot models with an entry list price of
$160,000 (U.S.). This product is covered under a one-year warranty.
About Computer Network Technology
Computer Network Technology, based in Minneapolis, Minn., is a leading
provider of high-performance networking solutions that allow enterprise and
open systems environments to share data and information. The company's
Brixton(R), Channelink(R), and UltraNet(R) product lines offer high-speed open
systems connectivity, access to legacy data and guaranteed data integrity for
applications such as remote storage, mirroring, and disaster recovery. The
company's products are sold worldwide through a direct sales force and a
network of authorized distributors. For more information, visit CNT's web
site at cnt.com |
