Commandsoft

Shared Digital Storage

Why Shared Storage?

The Short Answer:
To Save Time and Money and, thus, Make Money!

The Long Answer:
For many years, digital storage has been directly attached to, or embedded in, workstations (computers). Direct-attach storage works fine if you work completely alone, don't care much about storage efficiency, and don't need to share your data. On the other hand, if you work in a team/workgroup (as most of us do!), want to save storage dollars (as most of us do!), or need to share data (as most of us do!), direct-attach storage forces you to physically "swap" storage devices ("sneakernet"), acquire excess storage, or slowly "stream" high bandwidth data between workstations. These "old crutches" are extremely inefficient from a workflow perspective, costly
from a storage perspective, and highly dangerous from a data integrity one. The solution (cure!): A centralized pool of high-speed, shared (networked) storage - - the Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN).

Shared Digital Storage Why Shared Storage? The Short Answer: To Save Time and Money and, thus, Make Money! *The Long Answer:* For many years, digital storage has been directly attached to, or embedded in, workstations (computers). Direct-attach storage works fine if you work completely alone, don't care much about storage efficiency, and don't need to share your data. On the other hand, if you work in a team/workgroup (as most of us do!), want to save storage dollars (as most of us do!), or need to share data (as most of us do!), direct-attach storage forces you to physically "swap" storage devices ("sneakernet"), acquire excess storage, or slowly "stream" high bandwidth data between workstations. These "old crutches" are extremely inefficient from a workflow perspective, costly from a storage perspective, and highly dangerous from a data integrity one. The solution (cure!): A centralized pool of high-speed, shared (networked) storage - - the Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN).
A Fibre Channel SAN is not a luxury if you are involved in digital content creation - - it's an absolute necessity. The SAN eliminates the bottlenecks, risks, and inefficient data sharing associated with direct-attach storage. The SAN creates an instantaneous, shared networking environment which enhances and streamlines the creative process as well as enabling you to meet important deadlines and budgets. The storage capacity is sized to your shared data requirements and not individual workstation requirements. The cost of the SAN is paid for many times over in terms of editor time saved, enhanced creativity, storage efficiency, schedules met, and budgets not busted! CommandSoft's FibreJet SAN management software enables simultaneous access to the same storage from multiple workstations at speeds up to 200 MB per second one-way or 400 MB per second two-way, allowing multiple editors to work on the same source data without interruption and without data integrity worries. With CommandSoft's FibreJet software and a Fibre Channel SAN, time is spent on content creation and not storage, or risk, management.