Press Releases
VERTICES FROM B&L ASSOCIATES EXTENDS DATA STORAGE MANAGEMENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Brings legacy-class media management to open systems...
NEEDHAM, Mass. - Feb. 1, 1999 -- B&L Associates, Inc., a leading provider of computer media management solutions in the legacy arena, today announced Vertices®, a comprehensive, enterprise-wide, media management system that manages all removable media regardless of platform or source of data origination. Vertices manages media from open systems environments such as Microsoft Windows NT and UNIX as well as from traditional mainframe environments such as IBM and Unisys.
Vertices takes storage management systems to the next logical step and enables managers of large and growing, single- and multiple-site data centers to keep track of all computer media, including magnetic tape, disk, CD-ROM, Digital Linear Tape (DLT), Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), Digital Audio Tape (DAT), and other media regardless of the source. This means that the same level of sophisticated, media management that was developed for mainframe systems over the years can now be applied to an entire enterprise, including departmental and even desktop media. Vertices features vault, inventory and retention management and legacy-class security.
Today, changes in information management are coming faster than ever but there is one constant -- there is more information and media to manage. As a completely open solution, Vertices manages media over any network implementation, including Storage Area Networks (SAN).
"As open, client/server computing environments grow, managers face the same dilemma mainframe managers have faced for years -- how to keep track, monitor and secure an avalanche of removable media," commented Bryce Kramer, president and co-founder of B&L Associates. "With Vertices we've applied 23 years of mainframe media management experience to multi-vendor and open systems to enable our customers to easily and quickly implement world class media management in virtually any data environment."
Vertices is a comprehensive media management system that offers complete control over and fast access to stored media. Vertices addresses a broad range of media management needs:
Vault Management: Vertices enables system managers and administrators to set parameters to manage media based on days or generations and to create automated movement schedules. Relationship vaulting allows one volume to control the movement and retention of another volume. In addition, Vertices provides slot or container support for an unlimited number of sites and for an unlimited number of movements while offering comprehensive vault reconciliation and reports that are easily printed or distributed over the network or via e-mail.
Inventory management: Vertices manages all types of media including tapes, CDs, DLTs, DVDs, and DATs, and tracks media by volume name, generations, type of media, location and other parameters. Its flexible tracking approach enables users to track physical media against the Vertices database in fixed or batch modes using labels, bar codes or radio frequency (RF) technologies.
Retention management: Vertices' Advance Autolog assigns volume names to media before use to automate the retention process and automatically generates volume labels for printing or electronic distribution. Retention parameters can be set up to accommodate normal, alternate and relationship retentions. In addition, flexible retention periods can be defined. Virtual media management enables users to control individual volume generations and incremental backups on a single piece of media.
Networked and scalable: Designed to work in traditional Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs) as well as over fiber-based SANs, Vertices is fully scalable to enterprise-wide applications. Users can implement Vertices in a single data center and then expand it to include other corporate data centers and off-site storage.
Security: Two-tiered data security provides access control to media and can assign restrictions to specific functions and media subsets by user, host and/or volume name. Audio and visual purge verification offers an additional level of protection by notifying operators of media scratch status before use. Vertices' sophisticated audit capabilities flexibly track media and volume history.
About B&L Associates
B&L Associates, established in 1975, is the largest media management provider to the Unisys ClearPath marketplace and a leader in open systems media management. The company offers a full suite of data center operations automation products and storage management solutions, as well as on-line scheduling, billing and labeling systems. B&L, with installations in 26 countries, serves some of the world's leading organizations, including Electronic Data Systems (EDS), the Home Shopping Network, the city of Miami, the state of Michigan, the General Services Administration, and Unisys Corporation. B&L is a Computer Associates Unicenter TNG Development Partner and Vertices has achieved the "Unicentered'' level of integration. For further information, contact B&L at 877-VERTICES (877-837-8423) or http://www.bandl.com.
B&L, the B&L Associates logo, the BBARS logos, BL/SCHED, BL/PACK, BL/SOURCE, BL/DIST, and BL/LIB are registered trademarks of B&L Associates, Inc. VERTICES®, the Vertices® logo, and THE POINT WHERE ALL MEDIA COME TOGETHER are registered trademarks and VERTICES AUTOMATION MODULE™, VERTICES AUTOMATION AGENT™, VERTICES BAR CODE SCANNING MODULE™, and VERTICES LABELWRITER MODULE™ are trademarks exclusively licensed to B&L Associates, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Editors - for further information contact:
L.J. DiCarlo
B&L Associates
781/444-1404
ljdicarlo@bandl.com
Sandy McLaughlin
Soucy Communications Group
978/266-1700
sandym@scg-pr.com