Active Storage mSAN Replaces ActiveSAN

Active Storage, Inc., in performance storage solutions for media and entertainment production, post and broadcast professionals, announced mSAN, the evolution of their metadata controller at the heart of the mMedia.

The new mSAN is an upgraded metadata controller appliance replacing ActiveSAN. It maintains all the features of the ActiveSAN, and adds a number of customer-driven enhancements. It features enhanced administration capabilities, the mStats analysis software, automated metadata disk repair, and the ability to host selected complementary applications.

All current ActiveSAN customers are eligible for a free upgrade to mSAN.

"mSAN is an evolutionary step forward, building on the industry-wide success and adoption of ActiveSAN," said Alex Grossman, founder and president of Active Storage. "It takes ActiveSAN from being a straight-forward metadata controller appliance-to a metadata controller with powerful application hosting capabilities; adding critical media SAN applications while delivering tighter integration and greater efficiency."

The mSAN can now host applications from companies such as Levels Beyond and Archiware.

The software is hosted directly on the mSAN appliance pair to help end-users work efficiently, knowing that their media workflow is running on an integrated and supported platform.

Latest Xsan and StorNext 4.2 Compatibility
mSAN is guaranteed to work with the latest versions of Xsan and StorNext 4.2 and is tuned to deliver performance and reliability. Further, it can import and take over Xsan environments though a configuration import.

Enhanced Monitoring with mStats on mSAN
mSAN includes mStats, proprietary software which provides real-time information and performance profiling metrics across the SAN and other components of the mMedia Platform.

mStats helps take the guesswork out of finding performance bottlenecks – allowing administrators to monitor not just a LUN or single RAID – but all the components of the SAN, from pools of disks across multiple systems, individual RAID controllers, FC ports, and servers in the customer’s deployed configuration.

It enables administrators to optimize their system, enjoy full load balancing and enhanced efficiency to maximize performance and uptime.

With a click, users can see critical information about the health and status of their SAN environment such as throughput, controller utilization, latency, and cache hit/miss ratio.

All mSAN systems are delivered in matched metadata controller pairs, providing a redundant configuration right out of the box.

mSAN is integrated into the mMedia Platform, an end-to-end media workflow storage platform that integrates hardware and software to tackle media storage and management workflow needs – from ingest through archive.

Active Storage announced the mMedia Platform in January 2012, and is shipping to broadcast and post-production facilities around the world.

The mMedia Platform was demonstrated at NAB 2012.

MSRP for the mSAN:

• mSANX8 – Supports up to 8 Xsan clients $23,499
• mSANX20 – Supports up to 20 Xsan clients $25,499
• mSANXUNL – Supports unlimited Xsan clients $28,999
• mSANQUNL – Support unlimited Xsan, Windows or Linux Quantum StorNext clients $33,999