Tiger Technology poolIt Server ($995)

Based in Sofia, Bulgaria, Tiger Technology OOD, developer of storage area networking (SAN) and workgroup management software solutions, started shipping poolIt Server, the server edition of its new and affordable file and storage virtualization software tool.

“Many small and medium size businesses have been growing their storage infrastructures disorderly”, says David Pollock, director of sales for Tiger Technology. “They currently have far too many files, spread across too many appliances. They’d like to improve their productivity, but can seldom afford the luxury of downtime or capital expenditure required to address the situation. poolIt Server’s innovative file and storage virtualization technology, coupled with simple and powerful management tools, lets them solve this important problem without even having to submit a budget to the board.”

poolIt Server isolates users and applications from changes in the physical storage infrastructure by unifying all existing devices in a single namespace, thus simplifying access and preserving file links. A unique aspect of poolIt Server is that it can virtualize different types of off-the-shelf storage devices and appliances (DAS, NAS and SAN) thanks to a patent pending technology that allows the merging of heterogeneous file-systems into a unified file system. poolIt Server can therefore dynamically pool volume members, making it possible to transparently add (or remove) new storage to an existing pool without having to reconfigure client machines, reformat storage or even reboot workstations. With poolIt Server, IT staff can expand storage capacity of an existing volume in no time, or migrate data from one device to another without affecting users, and without risks.

“When the only answer you’ve got to increased storage capacity is to keep buying more storage appliances, you inevitably end up with a storage jungle that is difficult to access and manage”, says Alexander Lefterov, CTO for Tiger Technology. “With poolIt, you can hide all your storage appliances behind a unique mount point in no time, so users and applications can access all files and data from a single volume. Data tiering and migration takes place in the background. Users aren’t interrupted and applications no longer complain about broken links.”

poolIt Server builds on open standards. It represents a cost-effective alternative to global file systems that rely on proprietary technologies and scale-out NAS servers that run on dedicated hardware. With poolIt, there is no need to replace your existing infrastructure. Your multiple heterogeneous file-systems are dynamically merged in a single virtual file system so all the available data can be accessed from a single mount point. Unlike Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS) that forces each storage appliance to appear as a sub-folder in the DFS root, poolIt Server allows all devices to sit at root level. Smart runtime and maintenance logic policies let you ensure that data always gets stored, tiered, or migrated to the optimal target.

poolIt Server puts an end to storage provisioning that can be expensive and difficult to forecast. All available free space is unified. The resulting virtual volume mounts as a local drive that can also be exposed as a network share to the entire organization. User rights and access privileges are preserved. In a domain environment, poolIt Server authenticates each access against native Active Directory security.

poolIt Server key features:

• Combine up to 20x local and network storage resources into a single virtual pool (DAS, NAS, SAN)
• Add/remove volumes from the pool dynamically and without data loss
• Easily expand capacity of existing storage infrastructure
• Migrate data from one storage device to another transparently
• Implement tiered storage for better matching the type of data with the available resources
• Make use of all the available space distributed across multiple volumes
• Keep recently used files locally but transfer aging files on remote servers
• Create very large volumes safely and easily
• Optimize storage resource utilization through smart runtime and maintenance logic strategies
• ACL support for domain security and user authentication

Availability
poolIt Server MSRP is $995 USD in the Americas. It is now shipping for the Windows Server 2003 SP2/2008 R2 as well as XP, Vista and 7 (32 and 64-bit) operating systems. poolIt Pro MSRP is $495 USD in the Americas. It is shipping for the Windows XP, Vista and 7 (32 and 64-bit) operating systems. poolIt for Mac OS X is expected to be available within the next quarter. Tiger Technology software products are currently available from the company’s international sales partners and OEM partners.

To look at a short poolIt product demo
To get a 30-day evaluation software