NEW YORK -- FalconStor Software, Inc., announced availability of iSCSI Storage Server, powered by IPStor, an integrated solution designed specifically for the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 platform. The iSCSI Storage Server software will be made available via providers of Windows Storage Server 2003-based devices.

The iSCSI Storage Server is designed specifically to transform the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 into a unified storage platform, providing both file and block level services. The company claims it addresses the needs of SMB/departmental customers seeking to centralize and consolidate their storage, improve availability, consolidate backup, and provide offsite replication.

The iSCSI Storage Server also includes support for Microsoft?s Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). Organizations that have been unable to move to a Fibre Channel SAN due to cost or complexity issues now have the choice to consolidate storage for Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and other application servers, using this product.

Texas Tech University selected the iSCSI Storage Server on a Dell PowerVault 775N cluster to consolidate storage onto an iSCSI SAN for many of the school's web servers and departmental applications. ?FalconStor has intelligently leveraged Microsoft technology, and has enabled us to establish portability and enhance backup capabilities and reliability for our web server farms and departmental web-based applications using the iSCSI Storage Server,? said Dustin Jordan, manager of Server Administration for Texas Tech University.

In addition to centralized disk capacity provisioning, the iSCSI Storage Server enables Windows Storage Server 2003 to offer SAN-based snapshot, delta replication and zero-impact backup and restore services to application hosts attached to an IP/iSCSI network. The iSCSI Storage Server also offers mirroring and cluster services, which enable continuous operation during a planned or unplanned outage.

?Initial customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, especially from users who are still tied to DAS and were deterred from deploying SANs due to affordability, usability and ease of installation issues,? stated FalconStor CEO and Chairman ReiJane Huai.

Supported iSCSI initiators include the Microsoft software initiators for Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP. The company is planning to release a FalconStor-developed DSM for Microsoft?s Multi-path I/O (MPIO) in the near future. Pricing was not announced.