Smart Storage Virtual Tower

SmartStor Virtual Tower is a powerful new product from Smart Storage that enables you to store, share and access your favorite CD/DVDs with the convenience and speed of hard disk. By storing compressed CD/DVD data on available hard disk space, it turns any networked hard drive into a CD/DVD-ROM server. Virtual Tower requires no proprietary hardware or CD storage device. You can use any CD/DVD drive to cache and compress images to any hard disk on your network. SmartStor Virtual Tower is ideal for those looking for faster performance, convenient storage, easy management, and sharing of application CD/DVD-ROMs.

• Flexible Administration allows the system administra-tor to easily configure the system to meet the specific requirements of the LAN.
• CD/DVDs can be easily grouped, added and deleted, and permissions can be set for each share point or individual volume.
• Caches CD/DVDs automatically from one or multiple attached CD/DVD-ROM drives to hard disks.
• Supports ISO 9660 Level 1, Joliet and Rockridge file formats, as well as packet written CDs.
• Offers automatic CD/DVD recognition and sharing.
• Enables sharing of the same CD/DVD image to multi-ple users and groups within a LAN.
• Offers configurable Volume security so permissions can be set to individual CD/DVD-ROMs or to multiple mount points.
• Supports compressed images to maximize storage capacity.
• Provides Access to CD/DVD applications with the speed of hard disk.
• Intuitive interface displays volumes as subdirectories under one or multiple mount points.
• Easy installation and requires no additional software for access. All data is accessed through one or more configurable mount points.
• Requires no additional hardware.

Performance — Virtual Tower brings CD/DVD access to a new level of performance by providing multiple users simultaneous access to CD/DVD data at hard disk speeds. Unlike disc changers, there is no swapping of discs and no degradation of performance regardless of the number of simultaneous users. All data is constantly on-line for high-speed access.

Cost — Virtual Tower enables users to significantly lower the cost of ownership and the overhead associ-ated with maintaining and managing multiple storage devices. With Virtual Tower, a CD/DVD drive for every disk that needs to be accessed is not needed. Simply use hard disk space to house the volume image. With larger capacity hard disk prices quickly dropping, using existing server hard disk space is a cost-effective alterna-tive for storing and sharing CD/DVD-ROM based infor-mation, as opposed to using CD/DVD-ROM towers. SmartStor Virtual Tower helps an organization maximize its equipment investments by offering not only higher performance, but also lower costs.

Scalability — Smart Storage provides Virtual Tower licenses for anywhere from 14 to 99 CD/DVD volumes. Your Virtual Tower system grows as you acquire more CD/DVD titles, providing you with a completely scalable storage solution. All that’s needed is the hard disk space to store the compressed images.

Security — No longer do you need to risk losing or damaging valuable discs. With all the data copied safely to hard disk, administrators can share volumes among multiple user groups and set permissions for each with-out requiring the actual CD/DVD to be present. The CD/DVD can be used as a backup.

Flexibility — Virtual Tower’s advanced CD/DVD management tools enable a single CD/DVD image to be shared among multiple user groups within a LAN. At any time, the administrator can add, delete or move CD/DVD volumes without bringing down the system or taking any other discs off-line.

Compatibility — Since the Virtual Tower requires no proprietary storage device, CD/DVD drives or soft-ware for accessing the CD/DVD volumes, it offers complete compatibility with any NT server or worksta-tion configuration. In addition, it supports a variety of CD/DVD formats including, ISO 9660 Level1, Joliet and Rockridge file formats.

System Requirements

• Intel (or Intel Clone) Pentium PC
• Windows 2000 or NT 4.0 (workstation or server) operating system
• At least 32 MB RAM
• One or more hard disks for image storage
• Network connectivity to networked clients