Legato Drives Data Protection for Industry's First NAS & SAN Integration; Solution Delivers Multi-vendor Certified Scalability, Manageability of Storage - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 7, 2000

Legato Systems, Inc., the leader in enterprise storage management software, Wednesday announced that it is part of a multi-vendor initiative to deliver improved, comprehensive data protection to its Network Attached Storage (NAS) customers. For the first time, NAS file servers can share tape library resources over a Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN). Legato drives backup and recovery as part of an integrated, enterprise-wide solution using products that are certified for interoperability. This innovative delivery of integrated NAS and SAN backed by multi-vendor certification dramatically improves scalability and eases management for NAS customers.

This solution combines the long-term scalability of SANs with the ease of use of NAS. Customers can increase return on investment by sharing tape library resources and increasing Local Area Network (LAN) efficiencies as backup traffic is directed to the SAN. End users remain productive without disrupted LAN access during backup. The dedicated Fibre Channel bandwidth of the SAN can dramatically increase backup and recovery performance, thereby improving the quality of service for data protection.

The solution is an open configuration of components from multiple vendors that has been certified for interoperability. Network Appliance filers host data for heterogeneous operating system environments. The Vixel 8100 Fibre Channel switch provides 100MBps bandwidth and zoning capabilities to direct backup data to Quantum ATL or Spectra Logic tape libraries. Legato software has been certified to manage all backup and recovery management operations. Enterprises enjoy a common framework that unifies data protection and management operations across all topologies.

"NAS and SAN are key technologies for Legato's customers," said George Symons, vice president of product management at Legato. "We are delighted to extend the Legato Continuum for data protection and management as part of this multi-vendor certification initiative that allows our customers to expand their NAS and SAN deployments with confidence. Wednesday's announcement demonstrates Legato's commitment to working with other vendors to improve interoperability. With the inclusion of NAS as a central element in the SAN, we see an interesting merger of two technologies that together deliver meaningful customer value."

Legato NetWorker 5.5.1 is the enterprise backup software being used in the multi-vendor demonstration Wednesday for customers, partners and the press. It is in the process of being certified for interoperability in this environment and will be part of the certified solution in the near future. The product helps organizations easily protect vast amounts of critical distributed data by offering heterogeneous platform support, automated media handling, interoperable tape format, data stream parallelism, remote tape management, and automatic integration with the popular storage management frameworks in the network environment. Legato NetWorker 5.5.1 offers "state-of-the-art" data protection, making it the most flexible and scalable solution available.

Legato Systems, Inc., is a worldwide leader in the enterprise storage management software market. Helping companies leverage business-critical, corporate data assets, Legato's products and services enable information continuance, a seamless approach to the movement, management and protection of data throughout an enterprise. Founded in 1988, Legato's storage management software products have become the recognized industry standard with the largest installed base representing over 65,000 customers. Legato's products are available through a network of Legato-licensed resellers, integrators, OEM partners and directly from Legato. More information is available at www.legato.com. Telephone: (650) 812-6000.