Panasonic® and KOM® Inc. jointly announced today that KOM’s OptiStorm(TM) DVD for Windows® NT storage management solution supports Panasonic 5.2GB DVD-RAM drives and jukeboxes equipped with the drives. Designed to optimize the capabilities of the DVD-RAM format, OptiStorm connects the drives directly to the host system to provide all clients, including PC, UNIX®, Macintosh®, Power Mac(TM) and Novel(TM) systems with fast, transparent access to volumes of data. The hardware/software combination is unique in that it provides a single, cost-effective solution for reading and managing data from discs currently accepted by DVD-RAM, DVD-ROM, DVD video, and DVD-R drives as well as CD-ROM, CD Audio, CD-R, CD-RW and video CD drives.

Network managers can customize and automate the storage management of their data by choosing from OptiStorm’s extensive list of data management features, including task scheduling, which allows daily repetitive data management tasks to be scheduled for off-peak hours. In addition to offering a storage cost of only $.008/MB and a data life of more than 30 years, the 2.6GB (single-sided) or 5.2GB (double-sided) DVD-RAM discs are removeable and can be stored offsite for added security. DVD-RAM media also provides more than 100,000 write/rewrite cycles, making it ideal for Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) and data migration applications. Used to preserve valuable hard drive capacity, OptiStorm’s flexible data migration rules allow migration by time, date, etc.

With OptiStorm, the Panasonic DVD-RAM drives are completely transparent to the operating system and the application software. As a result, for users, a drive simply appears as a large hard drive. Users have drag and drop filing capabilities and point-and-click access. Multi-threaded operation handles multiple access requests simultaneously for faster performance. Performance is further enhanced through OptiStorm’s direct-read and write capability which allows files to be directly written to, or read from the DVD-RAM disc without copying selected files to cache. Direct-read and write enables applications to rapidly utilize large files while preserving magnetic disk space.

OptiStorm DVD for Windows NT is available worldwide through KOM-qualified distributors and resellers that specialize in storage or storage-related markets. SRPs range from $ 2,979 to $38,000 for DVD-RAM jukeboxes. Panasonic’s OEM DVD-RAM drive, model number LF-D101, is available as an internal drive with a SCSI-2 interface. OEMs can purchase the drive from Panasonic Industrial Company. Panasonic-branded internal and external DVD-RAM drives are available from Panasonic Document Imaging Company (PDIC). The internal drive, model number LF-D103U, has an MSRP of $699. The external drive, model number LF-D102U, has an MSRP of $799.

DVD-RAM media, which is marketed under the Panasonic brand name, is available from several other leading manufacturers. The removable double-sided 5.2GB disc has an MSRP of $39.95. The 2.6GB single-sided media has an MSRP of $24.95 and is sold with a removable cartridge for playback on the latest Panasonic 5X and 6X DVD-ROM drives.