COMMERCIAL NEWS

Redmond, WA — Advanced Digital Information Corporation, ESRI, a world leader in supplying software and services for managing and displaying geospatial information, protects its data on its ADIC Scalar(R) 1000 automated library.

The digital revolution has created a Renaissance in cartography, and dramatically expanded the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) field. GIS software combines geospatial images with databases and mapping tools to help us see today’s world in ways that are just as revolutionary as when Henry the Navigator sent ships south and west from Europe to cross the equator or when James Cook brought back charts of the Pacific. Municipalities use GIS to plan water management systems and to balance growth against environmental preservation. Package delivery services use it to find the fastest route to your address through rush hour traffic. It lets medical researchers create maps that correlate the distribution of diseases with geographical and population variables. And oil companies chart the position of continents a hundred million years ago to find new sites for exploration.

ESRI is at the center of this fast growing industry, providing sophisticated GIS software for a full range of UNIX and desktop operating systems. ESRI is also a leading GIS service provider, managing data collection and analysis for a worldwide client base. And the company is one of the premier on-line map suppliers — hosting, among other sites, National Geographic’s MapMachine web site and its 10 million monthly data requests. This level of activity means that ESRI manages very large data sets spread across many different work groups, all of which need to be protected and backed up.

Like many other fast growing companies, ESRI’s backup plan had grown up in pieces along with its data. The company located several small autoloaders in different workgroups, managing the process through a centralized network services group. “When the data we had to backup reached a couple of terabytes and it seemed like we spent all our time moving tapes around, we realized that we needed to find a more centralized, scalable enterprise solution,” explained Don Berry, ESRI COO. “A critical part of that decision was finding the best combination of performance, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and service. After a careful review of the choices, we selected ADIC and its Scalar 1000 tape library which we matched with Veritas NetBackup software.”

ESRI picked the Scalar 1000 partly because it grows easily in response to data increases without resorting to pass-through ports or add-on connectors. “We add new expansion modules when we need to, and the library just gets bigger,” explains Berry. “Since there aren’t any internal dividers and there’s only one robotic system, the performance stays high and it’s easy to expand the storage to over 1100 cartridges. We can also install up to 48 drives.” The option of using Sony’s AIT tape technology was also a major factor in the Scalar 1000 decision (it also supports DLT and 3590, with LTO coming). “We love AIT — we get high throughput, the cost is extremely attractive, and we get amazing data compression. We are averaging 4:1 compression overall. Our record is 184GB on a tape rated for 25GB native — that’s over 7:1. We’re in the process of upgrading to AIT2 technology which offers 50GB native capacity per tape.”

The ESRI seven-terabyte backup process is now centralized in the Scalar 1000 library. “The key is the combination of Veritas NetBackup software and the Scalar 1000. We now have a single process that backs up all the data from four flavors of UNIX machines along with Windows and Mac clients in one library, with one software application. All the data is centralized, our backup management time is dramatically reduced, and recovering files is easy.”

About ESRI

For more than 30 years, ESRI has been the leading developer of geographic information system (GIS) software with more than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support services. In addition to its headquarters in California, ESRI has regional offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 90 countries, and more than 1,050 business partners. ESRI’s goal is to provide users with comprehensive tools to help them quickly and efficiently manage and use geographic information to make a real difference in the world around them. ESRI can be found on the Web at http://www.esri.com .

About ADIC

With an installed base of more than 70,000 automated libraries, innovative storage management software, Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions, and Network Attach Storage (NAS) appliances, ADIC is a leading device-independent storage solutions provider to the open systems marketplace. The Company offers a broad range of products designed to enhance organizations’ ability to store, protect, manage and use their rapidly growing network data. ADIC’s automated storage products are available through a worldwide sales force and a global network of resellers and OEMs, including Dell, Fujitsu Siemens and IBM. Further information is available at http://www.adic.com .

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