FalconStor Deploys FC

FREIBURG, Germany -- FalconStor Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: FALC), the leading developer of proven data protection solutions, today announced that it has deployed central Europes first full 4Gb fibre channel storage solution at Sparkasse-Freiburg, a big Saving bank in south Germany with 1,300 employees. The complete new storage environment, with its massively reduced maintenance costs, was delivered for only a fraction more than the annual maintenance cost of the previous environment, ensuring a return on investment period of well under two years.

The objective of the deployment was to provide high availability of data alongside maximum solution flexibility, with future-proofing a priority. Although subsidiary to these business needs, there was also a requirement to reduce the maintenance costs associated with the existing 1Gb fibre channel SAN and its IBM Enterprise Storage Server.

Both of these objectives were achieved through the deployment of the new storage environment, which comprises a pure 4Gb fibre channel SAN, with two IBM DS4800 storage subsystems in an active-active cluster configuration, and mirroring performed by IPStor. The 8TB storage environment supports ten Microsoft, AIX and Solaris-based clients, running Oracle and Notes and providing file-serving services. Controlware, acting as consulting engineer and supplier for Sparkasse Freiburg already in other projects, designed, installed and integrated this solution. Controlware is a leading systems integrator and FalconStor partner of many years.

Markus Sigmund, leader of IT-Infrastructure at Sparkasse Freiburg, said: “We have been able to achieve several objectives through this deployment: the high availability and maximum flexibility we asked for; the peace of mind that comes with that; and, as a bonus, it is as close to cost-neutral that we could hope to get.”

“Peace of mind usually comes at a price, especially when it involves leading-edge technology,” said Alexander Jung, pre-sales manager, central Europe. “But this deployment proves that 4Gb fibre channel and IPStor can, together, deliver very rapid return on investment, due in no small part to IPStor´s low cost of ownership and ability to meet customer needs now and in any foreseeable future.”In the new Sparkasse Freiburg storage environment, IPStor runs on Dell servers, with QLogic HBAs and Brocade 4100 switches. The Brocade SilkWorm 4100 Fibre Channel switch combines up to 32 ports of 4Gbit/s performance with high availability and ports on demand capabilities to support mission-critical SANs such as Sparkasse-Freiburg´s.

The IBM System Storage™ DS4800 disk storage system supports a high-performance 4 Gbit/s fibre channel interface for increased host connectivity to deliver necessary bandwidth for high-throughput applications. It is designed for data-intensive applications that demand increased connectivity provided by eight 4Gbit/s host channels. These provide up to 1600 MBps of sustained bandwidth for high-throughput applications through the eight channels directly attached to the host servers or connected to a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN).

FalconStor Software Inc.