FalconStor Offers Trend Micro Antivirus For NAS Files

The company, based here, is now offering Trend Micro's antivirus software as an option to its IPStor appliance, which manages both SAN and NAS data over IP networks on Solaris and Linux platforms, said Jon Greene, FalconStor's director of product management.

The virus-scanning feature was implemented for use with NAS-based data because that data is stored in a file format, making it easier to scan than block data stored on a SAN, Greene said. As a result, it provides a central point of control for managing the NAS data, he said. Though virus scanning also could be implemented for SAN-based data, it would be a much more complicated feature and require agents on the individual servers connected to the SAN, he added.

The alternative to antivirus capability on a single appliance managing NAS would be to ensure that every desktop and server has its own virus scanner, Greene said. However, that may not be the case in every company and, even if it were so, end users still would have to make sure that each machine is updated regularly.

"By putting Trend Micro on the IPStor appliance, customers have one place to update, one place to manage," Greene said.

Jeff Manuszak, network engineer at Chi, a Warrensville Heights, Ohio-based solution provider and FalconStor reseller, said the antivirus option would be useful in centralizing the virus scanning of NAS-based files. That data also could be protected if all clients with access to the data had up-to-date virus protection, but that's difficult, especially with mobile PC users, Manuszak said. Having such capability on servers is easier to manage but still not foolproof, he added.

Putting antivirus software on the IPStor appliance is a more efficient and easier-to-manage way of scanning the files, according to Manuszak. "If you don't feel confident that every single machine has the most up-to-date antivirus software all the time, it's easier to have central control," he said.

Chi routinely puts several terabytes of NAS-based data behind IPStor, so the price isn't a concern, Manuszak said. But companies with 300 Gbytes or less of NAS data could use a separate server with antivirus capability to scan during non-peak hours, he said.

FalconStor could have integrated antivirus capabilities from other vendors, but the vendor decided to use technology from Trend Micro because of customer demand, Greene said. The Trend Micro option for the IPStor appliance is available now, with prices starting at about $5,000, depending on the platform and the number of processors in use, he said.