A new series of data-backup and disaster-recovery appliances has been unveiled by a company this week. The appliances combine a server, hard-drive cache, tape library, and the Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) software application in a turnkey solution.
According to Kevin Hoffman, vice president of sales at Hoffman Technologies, a Sacramento-based storage solution provider, this product brings an enterprise-level storage solution with full TSM support to smaller businesses. Hoffman mentioned that most smaller customers are not interested in TSM due to the high cost of integration, but he expects perceptions to change with this fully integrated solution.
The latest family of appliances incorporates a Sony tape library using AIT drive technology, marking the company’s first aimed at small businesses, said Ellen Rome, vice president of channel sales and marketing at StorServer in Colorado Springs.
The Y-series solution includes a 4U rack-mount server with hard-disk-based storage and a 2U Sony AIT tape library, as explained by John Sorensen, vice president of manufacturing at StorServer. Customers need to do a full backup when first installed, with TSM providing for incremental changes to be backed up to disk first and then to tape.
For small business clients looking to implement a disaster recovery program, the Y-series is worth considering, according to Hoffman. The Y-series also caters well to the government space, offering a turnkey solution for government agencies.
The pricing for the Y-series appliances ranges from $12,900 to $20,900, depending on the model. StorServer currently sells its products exclusively through solution providers and offers margins of up to 35 percent on the integrated solution.
Implementation is currently done by StorServer, but the company is looking to certify partners who have undergone training and have previous TSM certification to handle installations in the future.