Monday, November 14, 2016

Promise Technology: Pegasus3 Symply Edition RAID Systems

Promise Technology Inc. and Symply, Inc. announced the Pegasus3 Symply Edition, the next generation of the Pegasus desktop RAID storage system. 

These system combines 40Gb/s Thunderbolt3 performance with Symply's storage management suite.

The Pegasus3 Symply Edition is a complement to the new MacBook Pro, optimized for performance and content protection. It delivers the speed needed for creative professionals generating high-resolution video and rich media content, and also the safety and security of  RAID protection.
The Symply software suite makes setup, optimization and management easy. The dual Thunderbolt3 ports provide fast connectivity and the ability to connect up to six daisy-chained devices on a single Thunderbolt3 port while adding management tools and support from the creative workflow experts of Symply, Inc.

Thunderbolt 3 provides throughput rates up to 40Gb/s, twice the speed of Thunderbolt2.

The Pegasus3 Symply Edition is available in three models - the Pegasus R4, Pegasus R6 and Pegasus R8 - delivering four, six and eight drive configurations of RAID storage. Each system is tested, performance tuned and ready to go 'out of the box' for Mac users with a 1m 40Gb/s Active Thunderbolt3 cable for connectivity.
Every Pegasus3 Symply Edition will include Symply's macOS management App. iOS and Apple Watch apps to monitor the system remotely are coming soon. The Symply Management suite will support most earlier Pegasus systems. 

The Pegasus3 Symply Edition includes a three-year warranty, tech support and 24/7 media and creative user support worldwide.

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Quantum: Fiscal 2Q17 Financial Results

Quantum Corp. reported results for the fiscal second quarter 2017 that ended 30 September 2016 (all comparisons are relative to the fiscal second quarter 2016 unless otherwise stated):
  • Total revenue was $134.7 million, an increase of $17.7 million.
  • Scale-out storage revenue grew to a record $46.7 million, up from $29.9 million and the
    21st consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.
  • Total data protection revenue was flat at $78.5 million, consisting of $18.7 million in disk backup systems revenue (up 3%), $45.2 million in tape automation revenue (down 7%) and $14.6 million in devices and media revenue (up 26%).
  • Royalty revenue was $9.5 million, an increase of 9%.
  • GAAP gross margin was 41.2%, and non-GAAP  gross margin was 41.4%, up from 39.6%  and 39.9%, respectively.
  • GAAP operating income was $5.3 million, and non-GAAP operating income was $7.5 million, an improvement of $15.0 million and $13.3 million, respectively.
  • GAAP net income was $3.8 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income was $6.0 million, or $0.02 per diluted share. This represented an improvement of $0.05 per diluted share on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis.
 Fiscal second quarter 2017 business highlights
  • Quantum announced a new media reference architecture for animation and visual effects workflows that is built on the company's award-winning Xcellis high-performance storage. This architecture overcomes the time- and resource-consuming challenge of transferring content between animation and editorial departments over a network by optimising storage capabilities for both operations in a single shared environment, thereby streamlining workflows and boosting overall efficiency and productivity.
  • The company introduced the DXi6900-S, a deduplication appliance that incorporates 8TB self-encrypting drives, delivering the highest density backup available and enabling customers to reduce power consumption by 50%, compared to competing deduplication appliances. It also integrates the SSD technology to provide metastorage and access. As a result, the DXi6900-S speeds ingest, read, replication and space reclamation performance, allowing users to complete all these tasks several times faster than with previous DXi systems and many competitive products.
  • Continuing to expand its ecosystem partnerships in video surveillance, Quantum announced joint development initiatives with four video management system - Aimetis Corp., On-Net Surveillance Systems Inc. (OnSSI), Qognify and Verint Systems Inc. Under the initiatives, these partners have certified interoperability with Quantum multi-tier storage offerings, including StorNext 5 data management and QXS hybrid storage, ensuring that users have access to tested and integrated storage solutions suited to their environment.
  • Key scale-out storage customer wins included million dollar-plus deals with a major media company for a multi-faceted project and a global consumer electronics company for corporate video, as well as large deals with a leading car company using video surveillance in its manufacturing facility and a solar company that uses surveillance for product line quality control. Other notable scale-out storage wins included large deals involving technical workflows and management of unstructured data archives at a U.S. military agency, an electric power administrator and a global laboratory testing services provider.
  • In data protection, major customer wins included million dollar-plus deals at a European banking IT support operation, a large supermarket chain and a U.S. government department, with the first two involving new DXi6900-S deduplication appliance.