Santa Clara, California-based Network Appliance Inc says the latest version of its Data ONTAP network data-access filer delivers unprecedented performance for both Windows CIFS Common Internet File System and Unix NFS Network File System in a single multi-protocol filer. The products enables customers to deploy so-called enterprise-class Windows NT applications in Unix environments. The company is claiming a CIFS throughput of 10.9MBps with the company’s Open Network Technology Appliance Products 4.1 software release running full RAID data protection. Network Appliance filers have traditionally been deployed in Unix server and workstation environments; Data ONTAP, released in October last year was designed to enable filers to provide access to multiple data formats including Network File System, CIFS (Windows) and the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Data ONTAP 4.1, says the company, will enable users to make their existing Unix data available to Windows NT servers and enable Windows NT Workstation and Windows 95 users to access files in their native format, supposedly without compromising the performance of their Unix systems. Data ONTAP 4.1 is shipping now and is available at no extra charge to existing customers that already use the 4.0 version.
