StorageTek unveils new info management lineup

StorageTek, a leader in the development of information storage management solutions, will showcase several additions to its enterprise information lifecycle management (ILM) product lineup at the upcoming RSNA meeting. Two are particularly suited to PACS and healthcare IT: the Virtual Storage Manager Open (VSMO) data backup, recovery, and protection system and the FlexLine 600 storage system.

"The FlexLine 600 plays to imaging applications because it allows our partners to employ it as part of their PACS or image storage applications," said Jay Siefert, product marketing manager, ILM solutions. "VSMO is more for hospital IT: It's a way for customers to interject technology into their backup of the hospital infrastructure."

FlexLine 600 can quickly move cardiology and radiology exams from the primary spinning disk to a cheaper form of storage, according to Bonnie Kapur, product marketing manager for healthcare solutions. All radiographs taken in a day can be transferred at day's end from a file block on the spinning disk to the FlexLine 600 for indefinite storage.

FlexLine 600 is an extension of StorageTek's BladeStore product family. Based on an intelligent storage processor and new blade design, the FlexLine 600 uses cost-effective serial advanced technology attachment drives - standard interfaces for connecting storage devices - that scale in increments of 500 GB, with a low entry point capability of 3 TB. Benefits include a reduction in resources required for day-to-day storage management.

FlexLine 600 technology will be sold to StorageTek partners, such as Siemens and Agfa, for bundling with products they sell to hospitals. VSMO will be marketed to new and existing hospital IT customers.

VSMO is a disk-based virtual tape library optimized for open systems backup and recovery. Available in a 4-TB minimum configuration that scales up to 44 TB, the product has a data throughput up to 600 MB per second. Key benefits include the ability to share backup and restore resources across many backup servers and applications, and an overall reduction in IT costs.

"StorageTek's strength lies in tape drives and tape automation for data protection and archive," Siefert said. "The introduction of these two technologies augments that. No longer is a tape-only or disk-only solution acceptable for customers - the next great frontier is the introduction of disk and tape."

Key competitors for the FlexLine 600 are EMC and Hitachi Data Systems. FalconStor and Alacritus have products that compete against VSMO.