Nexsan and Microsoft have announced they will work together to extend the proven Nexsan Assureon family of archive appliances and systems, as well as make Assureon available to Microsoft customers worldwide. We at Nexsan have received a number of questions and would like to answer a few of them as well as explain the benefits this announcement brings to our partners and customers.
Microsoft/Nexsan Relationship FAQ
How will Nexsan and Microsoft work together?
Nexsan and Microsoft will promote the .Net platform as a leading platform for Storage 3.0 architectures
What can we expect to see from this relationship, and when?
Nexsan and Microsoft will work together to extend next-generation storage systems specifically to help corporate customers efficiently and easily manage the exploding amount of fixed data and digital content being created.
Why did Nexsan choose to build on a Windows based software platform?
In a phrase, the platform matters.
Microsoft Windows products are easy to understand, use and integrate into any organization and are common across organizations.
Windows has a comprehensive set of development tools with broad support across a large number of hardware platforms. Windows has more users, more tools and more support than any other platform. It is as close to an industry standard as possible.
What is it about a .Net-based storage solution that makes it so well suited for secure archiving applications?
Much of the unstructured or fixed data created is done so on Microsoft products. A storage system based on .Net is more tightly integrated with the applications that create all that data, and can seamlessly assimilate into .Net environments.
While other storage systems spend time and energy trying to integrate into .Net applications and environments, .Net secure storage systems like Assureon focus on innovating to optimized .Net platforms.
Innovation that includes a policy engine that leverages the unique features and functionality of .Net applications making it easy and seamless to move data to and from these applications to a secure .Net archiving platform. This ease of data access and migration allows users to access information quickly and easily anywhere, anytime regardless of their location while eliminating the burden on IT administrators.
Which Nexsan products are part of this announcement regarding Microsoft?
Nexsan’s complete Assureon line of secure archiving systems ranging from a 1U high, 4TB appliance to rack systems with petabytes of storage.
How does this relationship affect the other offerings in your product family?
While the focus of this announcement is around Nexsan’s Assureon line of products, Nexsan’s entire line of storage systems including the SATABeast, SATABoy and SATABeast Xi are also available to Microsoft customers and partners.
Where are Assureon products used?
Assureon is a widely applicable product family. It can be used in any enterprise environment that requires secure storage: e-mail archiving, medical imaging (PACs), records management, document management, instant messaging transcripts and telephonic voicemail, business documents such as invoices and purchase orders, and litigation support.
Generally speaking, this is information that is business critical but doesn’t necessarily need to be accessed everyday or even all that frequently. But, at the same time, you need the unwavering assurance that when that information is required, you know exactly where it is, that it’s secure and that you can get to it quickly.
Assureon addresses the emerging challenges posed by recent federal legislation requiring organizations to produce electronically stored data in legal proceedings in a timely manner.
Furthermore, many organizations are using Assureon to retain and access important data for business reasons such as data mining, trend analysis and intellectual property preservation.
What is Storage 3.0?
Storage 3.0 is an IDC term to describe next-generation storage.
Storage 3.0 no longer focuses on applications or workloads, but replaces older storage with techniques for cost-correct information storage that is based upon its value to the organization.
Storage 3.0 systems are intelligent storage products built on common hardware platforms. Storage 3.0 calls for a standard, intelligent and policy-based software platform that is focused on storing and easily finding data where it actually resides in the cloud of virtualized, multi-tier storage.
What makes Assureon unique from other secure archiving solutions?
First, Assureon is the only secure archiving system based on the Microsoft .Net platform.
This unique attribute provides customers with the only secure storage solution based on a ubiquitous platform supported globally by more users, programmers, tools and applications than any other system available today.
Second, the Assureon platform is more secure, performs faster and scales larger than any competitive product.
When archiving data, a business’ data store will grow exponentially and must be securely protected for a long period of time. Businesses must be able to access files quickly, easily and securely in a cost-correct manner.
The .Net platform and additional innovations from Nexsan result in a sophisticated archiving solution that has the most advanced security features in the industry; contains a grid architecture that performs rapidly even as file stores grow; and the capability to scale larger whether adding capacity or performance. This security, performance and scalability come with automated management, making it the industry’s easiest archive to manage.
Third, like all Nexsan products, Assureon delivers the advanced features that users expect from disk-based storage systems but at an affordable price that approaches tape.
Assureon eliminates the limitations of traditional disk and tape storage systems. Tape-based solutions lack the reliability and performance characteristics of disk-based systems, while traditional disk-based systems typically cost significantly more, consume more floor space and are energy inefficient.
The Assureon pricing model helps to deliver a secure archiving solution that any organization of any size can use. Nexsan includes everything you need in the box, eliminating the needs for additional software, fees and licensing. This includes Nexsan’s AutoMAID technology for energy efficiency.
How can I purchase Assureon?
From day one, Nexsan has sold its products exclusively through a global network of OEMs and channel partners, and we remain 100% committed to that proven approach. So, you can contact us and we will be happy to direct you to one of our value added resellers, system integrators or OEM partners.
For more information on purchasing Nexsan products, contact us.