Re: NAS, SAN, ...

Informix position: Tuesday January 25, 11:58 am Eastern Time Company Press Release Network Appliance Delivers First Network-attached Storage Solution for Informix Database Environments NetApp extends solutions to deliver simple, always available appliance architecture to Informix database customers SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2000-- Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - news), the leading provider of network-attached data access and management solutions, today announced that Informix Corporation (NASDAQ:IFMX - news), has certified NetApp' data management appliances, also known as `filers' for deployment in Informix' database environments. The two companies worked together to test and develop technology that can address the increasing workloads of Internet, data warehousing and decision support environments which demand immediate access to record amounts of information. With this announcement customers using Informix and NetApp solutions can fully optimize their database environments - which are required to be online 24-hours per day, need simple backup solutions and need to scale without downtime. ``To meet our customers' information access requirements, BancTec needs fast, scalable and reliable storage solutions,'' said Kevin Roper, general manager, BancTec North American Systems. BancTec, a Dallas, Texas-based systems integration and services company, provides image-based financial transaction processing systems for many of the world's highest volume processors, including credit card companies, insurers, banks, and government agencies. ``Many of our transaction processing and archival systems use large-scale Informix databases for data processing and retention. With the network-attached NetApp filers, we can easily scale our storage environment to address our customers' changing business requirements.'' Optimized for use as network access and retrieval, NetApp filers provide industry leading performance, reliability and ease of management for UNIX' and Windows NT' environments. Unlike raw I/O storage systems, which are difficult to expand after configuration, NetApp filers operate as single file systems that can be easily grown simply by adding new disk drives to the system. Unique NetApp data management solution features that Informix users can now benefit from include: -- Snapshot(TM) technology that maintains multiple backups online to ensure consistent images of databases and provide read-only copies of databases for backup, queries, decision support and report generation. All this is accomplished without expensive disk mirroring or performance degradation. -- SnapMirror(TM) software provides remote mirroring of data for quick disaster recovery, offline backup and data sharing. -- SnapRestore(TM) software allows any system to revert back to a specified Snapshot for instant recovery. Recovery of multi-terabyte-sized databases can now be done in minutes rather than hours without ever going to tape. ``E-commerce and online business-to-business efforts are changing the Web workload, placing greater demands on databases and supporting infrastructures,'' said Steve Weick, senior vice president and group executive, i.Foundation business group of Informix. ``Our tests showed advantages in scalability and availability for NetApp in Informix powered databases and applications on the Web.'' ``The data storage needs of Informix deployments in an Internet environment is a natural fit for NetApp solutions,'' said Dan Warmenhoven, Network Appliance President and CEO. ``NetApp is a leading provider of data management solutions for ISPs, web sites and E-commerce companies on the Internet today. Together, the NetApp and Informix solutions allow customers to build scalable Web/i.Economy solutions much quicker and easier than ever before.'' About BancTec BancTec is a worldwide systems integration and services company specializing in transaction management solutions for a variety of industries. The company is also a leading provider of maintenance services for major computer companies, government and corporate customers. BancTec employs more than 4,000 people worldwide and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. About Informix Informix Corporation, based in Menlo Park, California, provides innovative database products that assist the world's major corporations to attain competitive advantage. Informix is widely recognized as the technology leader for corporate computing environments ranging from small workgroups to very large parallel processing applications. Informix's database server, application development tools, superior customer service, and strong partnerships enable the company to be at the forefront of major information technology solution areas including data warehousing, high performance OLTP, and Web/e-commerce. For more information, contact the sales office nearest you or visit our Web site at www.informix.com About Network Appliance Network Appliance, a veteran in network file serving and caching, has been providing data access solutions since 1992. Major corporations and ISPs, including Lycos, Yahoo!, Citicorp Securities, Siemens, Lockheed, Cisco, Motorola and Texas Instruments have deployed NetApp solutions. NetApp's Internet caching solutions (NetCache(TM) appliances) and file servers (``filers'') deliver fast, simple, reliable and cost-effective access to network-stored data and enable simultaneous shared file services for UNIX, Windows and the World Wide Web. The company pioneered the concept of the ``network appliance,'' an extension of the industry trend toward dedicated, specialized products that perform a single function. Network Appliance(TM) filers and NetCache appliances are based on the Company's innovative data access software known as Data ONTAP(TM) operating system and standards-compliant hardware. More information is available at http://www.netapp.com. (c) 2000 Network Appliance. All rights reserved. NetApp is a registered trademark of Network Appliance, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Network Appliance, Data ONTAP and NetCache are trademarks of Network Appliance, Inc. NetCache is a registered trademark of Network Appliance, Inc. in the European Union. The following are trademarks of Informix Corporation or its affiliates, one or more of which may be registered in the U.S. or other jurisdictions: Informix' and i.Foundation(TM). All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: Network Appliance, Inc. Adam Trunkey, 408/822-6314 atrunkey@netapp.com ----- Original Message ----- From: David Williams <smooth1.demon.co.uk!djw@atmel-es2.atmel.fr> To: <dandrieu@atmel-es2.atmel.fr> Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 1:01 AM Subject: Re: NAS, SAN, ... In article <888v7m$aqs$1@news.xmission.com>, David ANDRIEU <dandrieu@atmel.fr> writes > >Hi list, > > does anyone have experience using informix with NAS (Network attached >Sytems) >like NetApp (with link at GigabyteEthernet >= 100Mb/s, and 10GigaEthernet is >announced, >and proprietary RAID 4) >in comparison with informix on SAN (EMC2, HDS, ...) connecting by FC (well, >SCSI on FC in