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Subject: ONStor in the News
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 06:55:02 -0800
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Thread-Topic: ONStor in the News
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From: "Jon Toor" <jon.toor@onstor.com>
To: "dl-Campbell" <dl-campbell@onstor.com>,
	"dl-Pleasanton" <dl-pleasanton@onstor.com>,
	"dl-Sales" <dl-sales@onstor.com>,
	"dl-se" <dl-se@onstor.com>
Cc: <fred.monsone@a3communications.co.uk>,
	<os@trainercomm.com>

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To All,=20
=20
Great article on ONStor / Valtus in today's Enterprise Storage Forum. =
Enjoy!
=20
Regards,=20
=20
- Jon
=20
http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/sans/features/article.php/3651831
=20
=20

Valtus Grows with ONStor
January 3, 2007
By Lynn Haber =
<http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/feedback.php/http://www.enterprise=
storageforum.com/sans/features/article.php/3651831>=20


When Canadian-based Valtus Imagery Services, a high-volume distributor =
of digital orthophotography, expanded operations in the U.S., the =
company knew it would need to expand storage too. That's when the =
company decided to broaden its partnership with ONStor.=20

Part of the North West Group based in Calgary, Alberta, Valtus' business =
customers were mostly small oil and gas industry companies. Data stores =
were growing at about 2 terabytes to 4 terabytes per year. Then Valtus =
opened shop in Boulder, Colorado, and began targeting larger enterprise =
customers.=20

"We're now seeing a demand for larger content storage, and expect to add =
250 terabytes in the next year alone," says John Welter, vice president =
of technology at Valtus.=20

Today, the U.S.-based operations use ONStor Pantera Clustered NAS as the =
primary storage environment for the company's library of aerial and =
satellite imagery.=20

Providing access to geospatial data for the oil and gas industry since =
1995 in Alberta, northeast British Columbia and southern Saskatchewan, =
Valtus more recently added complete coverage for the U.S. states of =
Montana, North Dakota and Utah, with data for California and Texas to =
follow.=20

As a high-volume, high-speed distributor of orthophotography, the =
company stores large mosaic datasets in its servers that are used to =
create images customized by area, resolution and coordinate systems.=20

Rising Demand=20

While Valtus didn't know exactly what to anticipate for storage volumes =
at its Boulder location, the company did expect healthy content growth, =
according to Kenyon Waugh, chief strategy officer at Valtus. Plus, the =
company was adding stereo imaging, or digital elevation models used for =
mapping.=20

When considering its storage system requirements, Valtus wanted to meet =
the following criteria, according to Welter:=20

*	The system must allow for seamless, non-disruptive growth.=20
*	It must offer the flexibility to choose among vendors for disk arrays. =

*	It must be a clustered solution for redundancy and to scale bandwidth =
as required.=20
*	It must offer efficiency.

"One of the most important criteria for storage was that it provided =
24/7 access to end users," he says. Seamless growth, he notes, means =
that the company can't have downtime or do forklift upgrades to its =
storage system.=20

"We also don't want to be locked into any particular vendor for buying =
disk arrays," says Welter, noting that the company was interested in an =
open solution.=20

A clustered solution would not only allow the company to grow as needed, =
but also accommodated the limited power and rack space available at the =
collocation facility where Valtus houses its equipment.=20

About two and a half years ago, North West, Valtus' parent company, then =
a Network Appliance user, began looking for a new storage solution. The =
company looked at systems from what Welter called "next generation NAS =
providers," such as Network Appliance, Isilon, BlueArc and ONStor.=20

"We brought some of the solutions in-house and did demos," he says. The =
company found that ONStor met its criteria.=20

North West brought in a four-way Bobcat 2280 cluster and eventually =
moved up to an eight-way Bobcat 2280 cluster with about 360 terabytes of =
storage for production data.=20

More recently, Valtus purchased the Pantera Clustered NAS gateways with =
50 terabytes of storage, which it expects to grow by 250 terabytes of =
disk in early 2007. "We'll handle the installation of the additional =
disk storage in-house, adding it in 40 terabyte to 50 terabyte chunks," =
says Welter, adding that ONStor will also be getting Valtus' business =
for its new arrays. Valtus has two IT staffers who maintain and manage =
the ONStor equipment.=20

Not only will the ONStor Pantera clustered storage allow for seamless =
growth by adding gateways, Welter notes that the system cost one-third =
to one-half that of competing solutions.=20

"With our NetApp equipment, we always had to do a forklift upgrade when =
the equipment hit its performance limit," he says.=20

Valtus' IT staffers work with ONStor engineers on an as-needed basis. =
For example, Valtus brought in ONStor engineers to help with =
installation of the new Pantera system and training.=20

New Features=20

Welter is looking forward to utilizing some of the new features of the =
ONStor solution this year, which he says will further improve =
performance and ROI.=20

For example, he points out that ONStor is adding global namespace =
functionality, which will allow all virtual servers automatic access to =
all gateways. "Now, NAS files can't span multiple gateways at the same =
time," he says.=20

While the company keeps an eye on other storage vendors and new =
products, Valtus sticks with ONStor because the storage solution =
provider responds to market changes, says Welter.=20

"For us, ONStor was a logical way to transition," he says.


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<HTML dir=3Dltr><HEAD>=0A=
<META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; charset=3Dunicode">=0A=
<META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=3DGENERATOR></HEAD>=0A=
<BODY>=0A=
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial color=3D#000000 size=3D2>To All, </FONT></DIV>=0A=
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>=0A=
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Great article on ONStor / Valtus in =
today's Enterprise Storage Forum. Enjoy!</FONT></DIV>=0A=
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>=0A=
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Regards, </FONT></DIV>=0A=
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>=0A=
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>- Jon</FONT></DIV>=0A=
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>=0A=
<DIV><A =
href=3D"http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/sans/features/article.php/3=
651831">http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/sans/features/article.php/3=
651831</A></DIV>=0A=
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>=0A=
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>=0A=
<DIV>=0A=
<P><FONT face=3D"Arial, Helvetica" size=3D+1><B>Valtus Grows with =
ONStor</B></FONT><BR>January 3, 2007<BR>By <A =
href=3D"http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/feedback.php/http://www.ent=
erprisestorageforum.com/sans/features/article.php/3651831">Lynn =
Haber</A><BR>=0A=
<P><FONT face=3D"Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" =
size=3D-1><!--content_start-->=0A=
<P>When Canadian-based Valtus Imagery Services, a high-volume =
distributor of digital orthophotography, expanded operations in the =
U.S., the company knew it would need to expand storage too. That's when =
the company decided to broaden its partnership with ONStor. =0A=
<P>Part of the North West Group based in Calgary, Alberta, Valtus' =
business customers were mostly small oil and gas industry companies. =
Data stores were growing at about 2 terabytes to 4 terabytes per year. =
Then Valtus opened shop in Boulder, Colorado, and began targeting larger =
enterprise customers. =0A=
<P>"We're now seeing a demand for larger content storage, and expect to =
add 250 terabytes in the next year alone," says John Welter, vice =
president of technology at Valtus. =0A=
<P>Today, the U.S.-based operations use ONStor Pantera Clustered =
NAS&nbsp;as the primary storage environment for the company's library of =
aerial and satellite imagery. =0A=
<P>Providing access to geospatial data for the oil and gas industry =
since 1995 in Alberta, northeast British Columbia and southern =
Saskatchewan, Valtus more recently added complete coverage for the U.S. =
states of Montana, North Dakota and Utah, with data for California and =
Texas to follow. =0A=
<P>As a high-volume, high-speed distributor of orthophotography, the =
company stores large mosaic datasets in its servers that are used to =
create images customized by area, resolution and coordinate systems. =0A=
<P><B>Rising Demand</B> =0A=
<P>While Valtus didn't know exactly what to anticipate for storage =
volumes at its Boulder location, the company did expect healthy content =
growth, according to Kenyon Waugh, chief strategy officer at Valtus. =
Plus, the company was adding stereo imaging, or digital elevation models =
used for mapping. =0A=
<P>When considering its storage system requirements, Valtus wanted to =
meet the following criteria, according to Welter: =0A=
<P>=0A=
<UL>=0A=
<LI>The system must allow for seamless, non-disruptive growth. =0A=
<LI>It must offer the flexibility to choose among vendors for disk =
arrays. =0A=
<LI>It must be a clustered solution for redundancy and to scale =
bandwidth as required. =0A=
<LI>It must offer efficiency.</LI></UL>"One of the most important =
criteria for storage was that it provided 24/7 access to end users," he =
says. Seamless growth, he notes, means that the company can't have =
downtime or do forklift upgrades to its storage system. =0A=
<P>"We also don't want to be locked into any particular vendor for =
buying disk arrays," says Welter, noting that the company was interested =
in an open solution. =0A=
<P>A clustered solution would not only allow the company to grow as =
needed, but also accommodated the limited power and rack space available =
at the collocation facility where Valtus houses its equipment. =0A=
<P>About two and a half years ago, North West, Valtus' parent company, =
then a Network Appliance user, began looking for a new storage solution. =
The company looked at systems from what Welter called "next generation =
NAS providers," such as Network Appliance, Isilon, BlueArc and ONStor. =0A=
<P>"We brought some of the solutions in-house and did demos," he says. =
The company found that ONStor met its criteria. =0A=
<P>North West brought in a four-way Bobcat 2280 cluster and eventually =
moved up to an eight-way Bobcat 2280 cluster with about 360 terabytes of =
storage for production data. =0A=
<P>More recently, Valtus purchased the Pantera Clustered NAS gateways =
with 50 terabytes of storage, which it expects to grow by 250 terabytes =
of disk in early 2007. "We'll handle the installation of the additional =
disk storage in-house, adding it in 40 terabyte to 50 terabyte chunks," =
says Welter, adding that ONStor will also be getting Valtus' business =
for its new arrays. Valtus has two IT staffers who maintain and manage =
the ONStor equipment. =0A=
<P>Not only will the ONStor Pantera clustered storage allow for seamless =
growth by adding gateways, Welter notes that the system cost one-third =
to one-half that of competing solutions. =0A=
<P>"With our NetApp equipment, we always had to do a forklift upgrade =
when the equipment hit its performance limit," he says. =0A=
<P>Valtus' IT staffers work with ONStor engineers on an as-needed basis. =
For example, Valtus brought in ONStor engineers to help with =
installation of the new Pantera system and training. =0A=
<P><B>New Features</B> =0A=
<P>Welter is looking forward to utilizing some of the new features of =
the ONStor solution this year, which he says will further improve =
performance and ROI. =0A=
<P>For example, he points out that ONStor is adding global namespace =
functionality, which will allow all virtual servers automatic access to =
all gateways. "Now, NAS files can't span multiple gateways at the same =
time," he says. =0A=
<P>While the company keeps an eye on other storage vendors and new =
products, Valtus sticks with ONStor because the storage solution =
provider responds to market changes, says Welter. =0A=
<P>"For us, ONStor was a logical way to transition," he =
says.</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
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