Letters from the President

Date: May 1, 2000

From: Phil Jamieson, Software Partners President

To: Friends of the Company

Subject: TAPESYS…Now and the Future

447 Old Boston Road
Topsfield, MA  01983
Phone:  (978) 887-6409
Fax:  (978) 887-3680
info AT softwarepartners.com


Since 1983, TAPESYS has been, and continues to be, the flagship product of Software Partners. We produced a major UNIX-oriented product in the mid-nineties, called StorageCenter. But because of UNIX’s lack of standards, menagerie of versions across various vendor platforms, and absence of marketing focus, we found it best to sell the product off and return to our roots. That means that once again, we are a company centered on enhancing, selling and supporting TAPESYS for our valuable customers. Since we are solely a software company, our ‘bread-and-butter’ is derived from this industrial-strength media management product. We will be supporting it for quite some time to come!

And so it is only logical that TAPESYS is expanding in response to customers’ needs. We are currently in the process of adding several new features to the existing OpenVMS product, and we are well underway in developing a brand new TAPESYS for WindowsNT. The new product is TAPESYS 2000, and is set to beta-test in the May-June 2000 timeframe. To get in on the early release of this important new product, contact me or Doug Kimball.

One major update coming to the VMS version of the product is an upscale graphical user interface. This GUI will run on any system supporting a web browser such as Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer. It will enable sites to drive the product over a web interface. It is a major addition to the front end of the product.

We are adding TCP/IP functionality to the product, while maintaining its compatibility with DECnet. TCP/IP compatibility will be a major advance for sites that no longer employ DECnet, or that operate both DECnet and TCP/IP in the same network.

Internally, we have added a new API that makes it easier for projects such as the GUI effort and certain diagnostic functions to work efficiently. We have added significant debugging points at nearly every moving part within the product, making it much, much easier for us to solve problems at user sites. Problems that come up these days are usually related to new jukebox drivers, layered software products from Compaq, and third-party storage hardware systems.

Other recent additions include:

tape mark support for very fast restores;

an API which developers can take advantage of;

VMS V7.1 Backup support, utilizing the new API for DEC’s BACKUPSHR;

enhanced security through the use of ACLs and Rights Identifiers;

tools to create online history data from independent tapes or online listing files;

JukeBox (JB) software enhancements to better manage libraries, including Digital’s MRU;

an OPCOM module that enables TAPESYS messages to be directed to one particular node.

Available immediately with the product is a suite of SLS conversion tools, making it extremely easy for SLS sites to convert their media databases and history sets to the TAPESYS format. This has proved most useful at sites that have discovered our superior, customer-oriented service.

Thank you for your continued interest in TAPESYS. As always, for the product to grow and evolve, we look to you, our important customers, for input that can direct our path. Don’t hesitate to give us your vision of where you think TAPESYS should be going!

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