Features - Storage Innovations:

EXAVIO DEBUTS ExaVault FC MEDIA STORAGE SYSTEM

Exavio Inc, a developer of cost- effective, high-performance storage and intelligent streaming solutions for digital media, announced the debut of the ExaVault FC (Fibre Channel) Media Storage System at this year's Western Show Exhibition and Conference.

The Exavio ExaVault FC, the newest offering of the ExaVault line of media storage solutions, is specifically optimized for media-centric storage area network deployment within the growing and dynamic on-demand digital media storage environments in the entertainment, broadcast, content creation and delivery markets. The ExaVault FC will be available in Q1 of 2004.

"Storage area networks and its associated storage solutions have always been synonymous with high performance and high price, while media centric network attached storage JBOD devices offer great value but at the expense of performance, interoperability and scalability," asserts Thomas Jackson, president and CEO of Exavio. "Our ExaVault FC directly addresses this opportunity by offering the lowest cost, highest density media centric storage solution designed to seamlessly integrate with storage area networks. Further, the system interoperates with a variety of operating systems and can scale as the customer's storage needs grow. The cost, scale, and performance of the ExaVault FC make it a very attractive alternative for on-demand on-line, near-line and archive storage applications."

The Exavio ExaVault FC Media Storage System is the perfect complement to media-centric storage area networks. The ExaVault FC sub-system is comprised of a Linux based controller, ExaView management software, and scalable storage arrays that provide unprecedented price/performance and flexibility for on-demand applications like VOD content libraries, on-line, near-line and archive storage for storage area networks within the post and broadcast environments, and real-time disk backup.

A number of key features are engineered into the Exavio ExaVault FC to afford easy integration into existing and future digital media environments.

• Low Cost -- The storage sub-system utilizes lower cost IDE/ATA disk drives and the latest commodity storage and computer components. The IDE/ATA drives more than meet the performance requirements of digital media storage at up to one-fifth the cost of their equivalent capacity SCSI counterparts and up to one-tenth the cost of Fibre Channel drives.

• Massive Scalability -- The advantage of the low power consumption and low heat dissipation of IDE/ATA drives allows the ExaVault FC storage sub-system and its individual arrays to deliver the most storage in the smallest footprint. A single ExaVault storage array can store up to 3TB within a 1RU (about 4.5cm high) frame. Multiple ExaVault storage arrays can be stacked and managed by a low cost, yet powerful Linux controller. It forms a single, high performance storage sub-system block, providing scalable storage in a compact physical form factor with a single point of control. Using current drive capacities, an ExaVault sub-system can scale from 3TB up to 120TB.

• FC Interface -- The system supports a Fibre Channel interface -- allowing seamless connection and interoperability to Fibre Channel based storage area networks. The high bandwidth Fibre Channel interface, with 2Gbps I/O throughput, eliminates any throughput bottlenecks and affords the system a 1Gbps read/write performance rate, suitable for a variety of media rich applications.

• Interoperability -- The ExaVault FC is designed to interoperate across heterogeneous storage area network environments -- allowing for maximum operating system compatibility. The system can be integrated within any Linux, Windows, Sun Solaris, IBM and HP operating platforms. The ExaVault FC can also work in tandem with the Gigabit Ethernet based ExaVault Media Storage System.

• Built In Flexibility -- The Linux operating system utilized by the Exavio ExaVault for configuration and control provides software RAID functionalities for the disk drives in each storage array. RAID 0, 1 or 5 can be configured across drives on single or multiple arrays to optimize the system for the performance or reliability needs of the particular application. Depending on the application configuration, the system can also function as a networked file system, streaming media server or a disk based tape backup system. This capability maximizes either bandwidth throughput or storage capacity at the lowest possible cost while still providing the utmost flexibility in fault tolerance and data protection.

• Removable and Non-Disruptive Storage -- Each Exavio ExaVault storage array supports the ability to individually hot-swap storage trays (a tray consists of three physical drives). When combined with RAID protection, the hot-swap feature allows a failed drive to be replaced without system interruption. In addition, hot-swap creates immediate benefits for the physical transport to shelf storage or swapping out programming content in real-time.

• Power Management -- Each Exavio ExaVault storage array provides the ability to individually spin up or spin down each storage tray. This feature will be integrated into the management front-end for operator control. For archiving applications, this allows each storage array to apply power to only the drives needed, thus conserving power and mechanical wear while lowering total cost of operation.

• Simple Management -- Each ExaVault storage array comes with an integrated element manager, the ExaView, which allows users to configure and monitor the storage array system graphically. All aspects of the operation can be performed over the ExaView configuration manager, reducing learning curve and reducing operator errors.