Attune Systems, Inc., a provider of enterprise-class file virtualization solutions, today announced the Maestro File Manager FM6100™, a new low-profile platform designed to better address the needs of today’s medium enterprises by offering leading-edge file virtualization capabilities, including point-in-time replication across multi-vendor file storage devices. Offered at a lower entry price, which broadens deployment options and complements existing clustered deployment configurations, the Maestro File Manager FM6100 increases the return on investment without compromising on performance and scalability.

"Attune's ability to provide robust file virtualization across heterogeneous file servers and network-attached (NAS) devices means that our joint customers can benefit from non-disruptive data migrations, data consolidation, tiering, and custom namespaces across not only Microsoft and other file storage devices, but also across existing legacy NAS devices," said Bala Kasiviswanathan, director Storage Solutions Marketing, Microsoft Corporation.

“My goal was to upgrade and not replace our storage,” said Zak Khalil, MIS manager at Lessard Group, one of Attune’s customers who have implemented the new Maestro File Manager FM6100. “We wanted a way to build on and optimize our existing infrastructure.”

“With this announcement, Attune is demonstrating the portability of its new solution by taking advantage of faster, yet lower off-the-shelf hardware costs, as we are also further extending our core file virtualization technologies by offering integrated point-in-time replication across heterogeneous file storage devices,” said Daniel Liddle, vice president of marketing for Attune. “In this new release, we are also able to leverage previous work we have done around coordinating snapshots across multi-vendor systems. We are now providing centralized user-visible snapshots across heterogeneous file servers and NAS devices in a powerful and unique way, which results in improved user experience and simplicity. We are proud to offer our customers a solution that, along with non-disruptive deployment and comprehensive reporting of existing storage environments, can take proactive action to avoid problems before they occur and preserve customer investments.”

The Maestro File Manager FM6100 is based on off-the-shelf hardware and seven core technologies that deliver its leading-edge file virtualization capabilities: Maestro Policy IQ™, Dual Path Access™, Adaptable Mirroring™, Volume Sets™, Dynamic Volume Expansion™, Small File Acceleration™, and Remote Scripting Engine™. The Attune file virtualization appliance is based upon Microsoft Windows operating system and natively supports and leverages numerous other Microsoft technologies such as Common Internet File System (CIFS), Server Message Blocks (SMB), Microsoft Cluster Server, Active Directory, Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), Opportunistic Locking (OpLocks), and Microsoft Domain Controller.

Pricing and Availability

The new Maestro File Manager FM6100 is currently available at an MSRP of US$29,995 for the stand-alone appliance and U$84,995 for the high-availability configuration.