Cambridge, UK, 10th October 2008 – Plasmon (LSE:PLM), the trusted source in archiving systems, today announced the joint development of a new Plasmon optical library that provides Fibre Channel connectivity to IBM i customers. As part of this development effort, Plasmon and IBM will provide IBM Power Systems customers running IBM i with an optical archiving option that offers efficiency, longevity, and reliability.
By introducing Fibre Channel connectivity, Plasmon is proactively responding to future i customer requirements by ensuring that these customers will be ready to make the anticipated transition to a Fibre Channel interface. The joint development effort will also provide i customers with the ability to share one Plasmon G-series library between partitions or servers running i. This agreement is a further expansion of the long-standing relationship between IBM and Plasmon.
"We are pleased to partner with Plasmon in providing a Fibre Channel optical library attachment for i customers,” said Jim Herring, Director, Power Systems. “With the industry acceptance of Fibre Channel connectivity, this partnership provides our archive storage customers with a clear upgrade path for integrated and easy-to-use optical library solutions on the latest Power Systems running IBM i. The additional capability for sharing Fibre Channel optical libraries between multiple hosts will introduce attractive new options for optical library users.”
“Enabling an easy transition path for i customers and opening up optical archiving solutions to more IBM customers are the drivers behind the latest engineering work between IBM and Plasmon,” said Steven Murphy, CEO, Plasmon. “Our joint development will ensure that customers can deploy a best practice 3-2-1 archive architecture: 3 copies of all data, archived on at least 2 different media types, with a minimum of 1 copy on secure offline media. We feel this is an excellent match for IBM’s own goal of offering customers the options they need to evolve and grow their business.”
In addition to building a new Fibre Channel optical library, Plasmon will continue its relationship with IBM in providing leading edge archival solutions for their customers. In fact, Plasmon has significantly expanded routes to market for G-Series libraries in IBM FileNet, Tivoli, and i operating system environments with new distribution and reseller partnerships and a renewed focus on channel sales for the offering. G-Series libraries are certified as “IBM System Storage Proven”.
About Plasmon
For more than 21 years, Plasmon has partnered with leading organisations worldwide to implement long-term archiving solutions. Plasmon provides customers with a proven methodology for establishing and managing enterprise archives as part of their IT and business processes. Plasmon solutions are designed specifically for long-term archiving without a product agenda and offer customers choice and flexibility to help them manage data growth, reduce archive complexity, enhance operation efficiencies, reduce cost and mitigate governance risk.
Founded in 1987, Plasmon PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: PLM) and is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom with offices globally. For more information, visit www.plasmon.com.
Plasmon and UDO are registered trademarks of Plasmon Plc.
# # #
For further information and photography, please contact:
James Farquharson
Goode International Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 1491 873323
E-mail: james.farquharson@goode.co.uk
Sally Fisher
Plasmon
Tel: +44 (0) 1763 262963
E-mail: sfisher@plasmon.co.uk
