Fujitsu Asia Launches CentricStor Version 3.1 for ASEAN

Singapore, March 11, 2005

Leading regional IT and communications solutions provider Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd today announced the ASEAN launch of CentricStor Version 3.1, a virtual tape appliance designed for enhanced data protection, round-the-clock business continuity and flexible service levels.

Developed by Fujitsu Siemens Computers, CentricStor Version 3.1 is the latest incarnation of CentricStor, the world’s first self-contained appliance designed to virtualise magnetic tape processing across major system platforms in heterogeneous environments.

Announced by Fujitsu Siemens Computers at the ongoing CeBIT 2005 trade show in the German city of Hannover, the new appliance features disaster protection, enhanced functions for round-the-clock business continuity and more flexible service levels.

The new cache-mirroring function offers users greatly improved data security and real-time disaster protection for nearline data. Data can be transferred synchronously – even over long distances – to a second cluster site via a 2-gigabit fibre channel connection, thus ensuring that information remains preserved even if one cluster site is destroyed. System restarts and disaster recovery can be quickly executed with no need for application modifications or changes to backup procedures, thanks to automated failover and cache-mirroring.

CentricStor Version 3.1 also supports flexible virtual volume sizes (an attribute for virtual volume groups that is independent of real tape media) of up to 200GB, for extended adaptability to users’ needs and smoother integration with existing backup solutions.

The appliance supports different attributes for groups of logical volumes, making it highly suitable for nearline consolidation even in heterogeneous environments.

CentricStor Version 3.1 also offers greater flexibility in information lifecycle management (ILM). For instance, it allows extended Service Level Agreements (SLAs) at the disk cache level for any virtual volume. By allocating priorities, users can set aside resources for various user groups while disk cache residency allows them to access selected data promptly. In addition, the real-time mirroring ensures continuous service quality even if an entire cluster site fails.

"With new disaster recovery and data-protection features we extend our technology leadership in virtual tape technology," said Dr Helmut Beck, Vice President Storage at Fujitsu Siemens Computers. "With CentricStor, our customers can attain three goals: they can choose freely among the most cost-effective nearline storage systems; they achieve a superior level of protection for their data and they obtain efficiency of management throughout the entire information lifecycle."

Fujitsu Asia will release CentricStor Version 3.1 for ASEAN markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam today.

The CentricStor fail-safe disaster protection solution combines the speed of disk with tape reliability for disk-to-disk-to-tape backup with integrated ILM functions. CentricStor supports leading backup applications, major system platforms and major tape automation environments. Many satisfied customers in Europe are already using CentricStor for data protection and nearline storage consolidation. The powerful virtual tape appliance was first released for ASEAN markets by Fujitsu Asia in late-2004. Visit www.centricstor.com to find out more about CentricStor.