Alphatronix Inspire Emissary/HSM

Alphatronix excels most in native driver implementation. By modifying the HP jukebox a bit, Alphatronix eliminates the need to modify the Sun operating system. This makes installation and maintenance much easier. Not only is this a unique solution, but evidently a good one, since HP now offers that as a configuration choice on its standard jukebox. Since the jukebox uses Sun's sd driver as well as the UFS file system, these disks can be mounted without any software from Alphatronix.

This also means it's possible to install the HSM software directly from the drive in the jukebox, which makes good use of your investment. It is not necessary to have a CD, tape or any other device, except your jukebox, to install the software.

Configuring the HSM volumes and their migration attributes was very simple and straightforward. By using Data Migration Manager (DMM), we were able to set up our HSM file system and modify the details to our hearts desire, all with a simple point and click of the mouse.

So far, Alphatronix only supports single-level HSM for a server with its own modified HP MO jukeboxes. But Alphatronix is redeveloping its software from the ground up. Our initial look at the new version reveals some exciting possibilities. The company will be offering a fully distributed data management system that will rival OpenVision and Epoch.