Alliance Storage Technologies Secures Future of Plasmon UDO Technology

July 28, 2009 - PRLog -- Colorado Springs, CO  – Alliance Storage Technologies, Inc. (ASTI) became the owner and exclusive manufacturer of Plasmon brand technologies in January 2009 and today announces key programs and operational capabilities that enable it to address the market need for trusted long-term archival storage with professional Ultra Density Optical (UDO) solutions.

“ASTI worked very closely with Plasmon over the past ten years as a sales and service provider of optical technology for archival applications,” said Chris Carr, ASTI CEO and President.  “When Plasmon ran into financial difficulty late last year, we were motivated to buy the intellectual property and assets, and re-engage with professionals who feel our passion for the technology. There are over 17,000 installations of UDO technology that are not only depending on our software and firmware support to extend the value and life of their original technology investment, but want us to enhance their products and develop next generation solutions. UDO media enables archival data retention for 50+ years on a secure, reliable and permanent archive.  If ASTI did not acquire the Plasmon UDO technology, customers would have been forced to go to less reliable, more expensive and less environmentally-friendly alternatives.  Today we are announcing key milestones in re-establishing the business and technical operations under the ASTI banner and re-engagement with key channel partners, technical services, and ISV communities where UDO has been and will continue to be an integral part of their business and value proposition to customers,” said Carr.

Since acquiring Plasmon intellectual property and assets, ASTI has re-established:

-       Manufacturing of the UDO Drives, Archive Appliance and G-Series Library systems; G Enterprise, Gx Series, Archive Appliance NAS systems and AAE.

-       Continued support of D Series, M Series, and 12 inch drives and library systems.

-       Supply chain for parts and materials to support manufacturing, repair services, new parts and upgrades for all the above supported systems.  

-       Media manufacturing, for UDO1 and UDO2 (WORM & R/W). Other media available include 5 ¼ MO and 12 inch media types.  

-       Archive Appliance software development resources in the UK (former Plasmon PLC employees), actively developing new releases and enhancements.

-       Customer Service Level 1, 2 & 3 technical support for all Plasmon products. Customers under contract with ASTI are receiving support from a team with many years of experience with the Plasmon product line.

-       Worldwide on-site maintenance service network for all Plasmon libraries.  ASTI has expanded its service network to include several authorized maintenance service organizations across the globe to provide support for Plasmon products.

-       Authorized Service Provider (ASP) Program: ASTI has established an ASP Program to ensure customers receiving third party maintenance services are fully backed by ASTI and will have access to factory parts, comprehensive training and certification, ASTI technical support, new firmware and software releases, product documentation and utilities.

-       Channel Partner & ISV Programs:  ASTI has re-engaged with over 100 Value Added Resellers and Systems Integrators worldwide, as well as key storage software and hardware vendor partners.  

-       ISO 9001 Certification and vender certifications from key partners.

About Ultra Density Optical  
UDO is a blue-laser-based optical media that offers permanent, authentic-WORM (Write Once Read Many) storage, rated to last more than 50 years. Rewriteable and Compliant Write Once media types are also available.  Unlike consumer market DVD and Blu-ray offerings, UDO is a commercial grade solution that maintains a ‘compliant’ data archive over a long period of time.  UDO’s unique material properties and hardened plastic encasement support media handling and removability without causing damage to the stored information.   The UDO blue-laser process is one of the only technologies that ‘guarantees’ data integrity through verification of every write operation to the media. It offers excellent performance through random access of data, unlike streaming technologies used for video and music.  UDO’s 25-millisecond seek times are close to disk access speeds, yet have lower acquisition costs, use 15% of the power of disk and are much faster than tape and DVD. The media is water-proof and magnetic-proof and can be cleaned without losing data.  UDO is backward compatible with older UDO drives, preserving the usability of the media over long periods of time.

About Alliance Storage Technologies, Inc.
In January 2009, ASTI completed the acquisition of all Plasmon assets, including the full line of Plasmon libraries, drives, media, parts, and related inventory.   With this acquisition, ASTI positioned itself to regain the leadership role in archival data storage and will continue to maintain and develop the Plasmon brand solutions based on UDO optical storage technology.  ASTI has actively recruited over 30 former Plasmon employees and other company professionals for key support, manufacturing, engineering, inside and outside sales positions. For further information, please visit www.alliancestoragetechnologies.com, call 719-593-7900 or email info@astiusa.com.

For press inquiries, please contact:
Mark Rieger
ProAmericas Marketing & Public Relations
markr@proamericas.com
303-520-4524

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About Alliance Storage Technologies, Inc.
In January 2009, ASTI completed the acquisition of all Plasmon assets, including the full line of Plasmon libraries, drives, media, parts, and related inventory. With this acquisition, ASTI positioned itself to regain the leadership role in archival data storage and will continue to maintain and develop the Plasmon brand solutions based on UDO optical storage technology. ASTI has actively recruited over 30 former Plasmon employees and other company professionals for key support, manufacturing, engineering, inside and outside sales positions. For further information, please visit www.alliancestoragetechnologies.com, call 719-593-7900 or email info@astiusa.com.