Plasmon provides first UDO archival solution
Plasmon provides first UDO archival solution
Plasmon has bought Raidtec so that it can integrate its cutting UDO disks to SAN and NAS network systems to provide a new archival storage solution for healthcare agencies, governments and corporate organisations.
UDO (Ultra Density Optical) features blue laser recording rather than red lasers, used in existing optical drives, such DVD. Blue lasers achieve far greater densities, resulting in much higher media capacities.
First generation UDO have 30GB and can reach 120GB by the third generation. The drive and media capacity is expected to double every 18 to 24 months.
Plasmon has been working with its larger integration partners over the last two years to find the right solution for an integrated network attached archive solution. Nigel Street, CEO of Plasmon said. "Over the last 15 months we have been engaged with Raidtec to build a next generation product that bundles their storage networking and RAID technologies with Plasmon libraries. Acquiring Raidtec is the next logical step in our relationship and allows Plasmon to benefit directly from Raidtec's 12 years of experience and core technology in NAS operating systems and controllers.
Plasmon has already signed contracts with major medical imaging customers to provide integrated archival storage in 2004. It will also supply UDO drives and media for Hewlett Packard's StorageWorks Optical Libraries.
Peter Gerr, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, praised the acquisition. "Acquiring Raidtec is a savvy move. In addition to the strategic benefit of incorporating Raidtec technology in network attached optical libraries, Plasmon acquires a complementary set of RAID and NAS products, and new channels to sell them through.
"This acquisition puts Plasmon in a better position to address more of an organisation's information lifecycle and archiving requirements while it expands its presence in high-growth market segments like healthcare."
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