AFS Friends --
Here's an update on Transarc's evaluation of the Hierarchical Storage
Migration (HSM) additions to AFS that the Pittsburgh Supercomputer
Center (PSC) has created (under the name "Multi-resident AFS"). As
you may know, we are considering incorporating these as an option for
our AFS(R) 3 product.
We have been proceeding along several fronts:
(1) Our technical evaluations so far have been positive--that is,
after experimenting with the software, we believe these additions will
provide our user community with functionality that is valuable for
assisting in the archiving of medium-to-large amounts of AFS data via
standard interfaces to commercial archiving software products.
(2) We are working with PSC to complete deeper evaluations of their
work, to ensure that its productization (including, for example,
suitable documentation and support) can be accomplished with a
reasonable amount of engineering effort, so as to produce a solution
that is both timely and not prohibitive in cost. This evaluation is
proceeding, but has taken significantly longer than we anticipated,
for a variety of reasons. For this delay, we sincerely apologize. We
anticipate that another few weeks of effort will be required to
conclude these evaluations and to determine if there is a feasible and
timely release schedule for this option.
(3) We are also currently negotiating relevant terms with PSC in
support of the goals mentioned in (2), above, to ensure a supportable
product for our customers.
(4) We have assembled a list of sites interested in purchasing a
license for Multi-resident AFS, and will be contacting those sites
directly in the next few weeks to discuss initial licensing terms.
Please contact your Transarc account executive, if you have not done
so earlier, to make sure that you are on the list of sites to be
contacted.
As always, we appreciate your interest in AFS and an HSM solution to
accompany it.
Philip Lehman
Transarc Corporation
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
