FibreCAT N20-WAFS appliance from Fujitsu Siemens Computers enables central data management with zero performance loss

The new FibreCAT N20-WAFS with Wide Area File Services from Fujitsu Siemens Computers is pivotal to the "dynamic IT for branch office connection" concept, a concept designed to take advantage of the efficiency and benefits of a central corporate computing centre to manage the data in a company`s remote and branch offices as well.

This new appliance reduces the time it takes to open and save files via the WAN (wide area network) from several minutes to mere seconds. This means that companies can now manage the data in their branch offices centrally in the computing centre without causing any delays in access via the WAN.

This data consolidation benefits companies not only by reducing administration and operating costs. It also facilitates cooperation between the different branch offices since they can now access the same documents at the same time and virtually at LAN speed.

The FibreCAT N20-WAFS systems are based on the Windows Storage Server operating system and are the only WAFS solution to have ever received a Microsoft endorsement to date. Customised to meet the special needs of companies with many branch offices that have few or no applications on local application servers, this solution also provides companies with great potential for consolidating and reducing their operating costs. Because using the WAFS appliances means that all data is stored in the head office, the central computing centre is responsible for backup, recovery and disaster prevention for the entire enterprise, allowing companies to save in terms of IT staff, hardware costs and software licences because data backup is no longer required in the branch offices.

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"The FibreCAT N20-WAFS is another one of our successful storage systems in the FibreCAT N series and an important element in our `dynamic IT for branch office connection`, which is part of our dynamic data centre concept," says Rui de Oliveira, Product Manager Enterprise Computing at Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

"This new appliance also offers companies low initial costs along with a very rapid ROI (return on investment). At the same time, users can be confident that their data has optimum protection and can be accessed as required in just seconds."

Wide Area File Services is a file system that optimises and reduces data traffic in the WAN. The WAFS solution from Fujitsu Siemens Computers is made up of an edge appliance in each branch office and a core appliance in the head office. The core appliance has one or more disk memories connected upstream and is able to optimise queries from the branch offices via the WAN. The data currently in use is held locally on the edge appliance in a cache and the standard TCP/IP protocol is fine-tuned to the minimum number of transmissions required to considerably reduce WAN traffic overall and enable rapid data access. The latency times that can otherwise be expected are now a thing of the past. And if the centrally stored file is altered in any way, the edge appliance is notified and updates the data accordingly in the cache.

The FibreCAT N20-WAFS appliances are pre-installed and up and running in a matter of minutes. They are based on the Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMERGY servers and run on the Windows Storage Server operating system to guarantee seamless integration in a Windows environment with Active Directory and Microsoft software. In addition, the FibreCAT N20-WAFS can also be used as a print server and an additional local file server in the branch offices.