SAN JOSE, Calif., 23 July 2008. BlueArc Corp., maker of scalable, high-performance unified network storage, announced one state air guard's deployment of a BlueArc Titan 3200 storage solution with a 6x1-gigabit Ethernet connection and 20 terabytes of Fibre Channel storage for secure data access and fast analysis of massive volumes of information captured from flight missions.
BlueArc implemented the solution with value-added reseller West Coast Technology (WCT), a specialist in data storage and protection.
"As the agency considered the alternatives to prohibitively complex technology, we were challenged to find a solution that would deliver throughput, ease of use, and security," says Rick Crane, CEO, WCT. "In our experience, only BlueArc Titan offers the performance of a storage area network, the simplicity of network attached storage, and support for multiple storage formats, so that government customers don't have to make trade-offs that could jeopardize projects or classified information."
The BlueArc solution plays a part in the final testing of software for quality assurance before it is implemented in F16 aircraft.
A lean team of approximately 35 military personnel from the air guard, the state air reserve and active U.S. Air Force servicemen, government, and contract staff work together at a National Guard base in the Southwest to monitor and evaluate flight combat equipment and systems performance information collected from its squadron of F16 planes.
A single test flight may produce as much as 10 to 15 terabytes of data, says a representative. Collection devices are connected directly to the air guard's workstations and transferred to the Titan storage solution for analysis, and then data is archived to tape.
West Coast Technology and BlueArc deployed a storage infrastructure with 16 workstations and tape-based backup, using CommVault backup software.
The air guard expects Titan's performance and capacity will serve its changing needs and prove cost-effective for the long term, says a representative. Recognizing that other agencies will have use for the data it collects, the air guard is considering offering analysis as a service to other organizations, and anticipates a corresponding increase in storage capacity.
The Titan 3000 series can expand to up to 4 petabytes of usable space to accommodate the air guard's future plans.
