Ultera Announces the 'Super' Imager Tape Mirroring Controller to Ease the Task of Meeting HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC, OSHA, and other Compliance Requirements.

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. -- The Dual Purpose Super Imager Controller can also be used for Off-Line Duplication at 2Gb Fibrechannel or U160 SCSI speeds

Ultera Systems, the leading provider of high performance Controllers for Tape and Virtual Tape, today announced the S-Imager Automated Tape Mirroring Controller. The Plug and Play S-Imager can produce two backup tapes as quickly as one. The S-Imager appears as a single tape drive/tape library to the System, while it actually mirrors the data being backed up onto two drives simultaneously at their maximum recording speed.

According to Mas Omae, director of sales at Ultera Systems: "Two issues convince the users of their need for the S-Imager: avoiding costly penalties for failure to meet regulatory compliance requirements and the lack of time to re-do incomplete or failed backup jobs. Replication with near-line disks is fine, but the ultimate in providing universal, affordable disaster recovery capability is a second copy of tape located off-site. It becomes a question of how much can you afford to spend, in time and money, to comply and when. Secondly, as tape cartridge capacities continue to increase, backup administrators no longer have the extra 4+ hours per tape to re-run backup jobs due to failed tape drives or media. So how does one meet government requirements?"

Mirroring improves the reliability of backups significantly. If one backup fails, the mirror backup continues to completion, saving re-do time and worry. Once the job is completed, the S-Imager can be used to make an identical copy of the back-up tape for off-site needs.

"The S-Imager integrates seamlessly with major backup software running on different hardware/operating system platforms. At U160 SCSI and 2Gb FC, it has the bandwidth to support all new technology drives such as LTO3, SDLT600, IBM 3590, T9940B, and SAIT. It is available today," said Omae.

S-Imager controllers are available in three configurations: 1. SCSI host / SCSI tape, 2. FC host / FC tape and 3. FC host / SCSI tape. All FC ports are 2Gb SFP and all SCSI ports are U160 LVD VHDCI. For example, Model T2181, an S-Imager in a 1U rack, supports mirroring two SCSI tape drives at $6,095 MSRP. The same S-Imager can be used for server-free duplication at the full speed of the tape drive. S-Imager is also available for mirroring within a single library or across two libraries.

About Ultera

Founded in 1994, Ultera has designed and delivered high-performance controller technology for tape, virtual tape, and other removable storage devices. Its product lines are marketed under the trade names: "Mirage," "Striper," "Imager," "LibraryMaster," "RAILMaster," and "ShadowMaster," and sold through OEMs, VARs, and storage integrators, and distributors worldwide.