A 17-year old electronics manufacturer, Zetaco Inc, of Eden Prarie in suburban Minneapolis, used UniForum to introduce a new data archiving system for Unix-based networks. The NETstor Archivist is a software and hardware package that can automatically archive data onto optical write once disks for permanent storage. Acting as another workstation attached to an Ethernet network, the product serves all workstations via TCP/IP with on-line access to archived files. According to Zetaco, the approach wins over the conventional use of magnetic tape back-up by allowing a centralised control of archiving and back-up for higher reliability, and allows for faster and more convenient restoration of archived data. Multiple 12 optical drives can be used, with juke boxes available to store up to 190Gb of data. Residing on a Sun-3 workstation, the NETstore Archivist can poll the disks of all TCP/IP workstations on the network, automatically archiving data under command options specified by the network administrator, without operator intervention. It can then be restored by the administrator, or by password-holding users to any target workstation. Zetaco will supply the system in broken down form as software and optical disk drive only, or as a complete system including Sun Microsystems workstation and disk drives, including optional juke box. Prices range from $35,000 to $200,000.
