The economy may be in the tank, but companies are still working like crazy. If nothing else, they're becoming more efficient and squeezing every wrinkle out of their infrastructures. Network-attached storage appliances are helping many companies transfer files at a rapid pace with little or no administration required.

That's until they want to upgrade the appliance or move the files for reasons like relocation, business continuity, or simply departmental sharing. That becomes a manual process that can take a lot of time, violating the very reasons for NAS. Rainfinity will ship the RainStorage NAS storage switch Tuesday, a device that could make a NAS infrastructure simpler.

Customers snap the RainStorage switch between multiple NAS appliances first. When administrators want to move files for backup and recovery, for example, they click a few keys and the files pass through the RainStorage switch. The file information remains available on the first appliance the whole time that the second appliance is getting filled. When all the files have moved, all the input/output components are rerouted to the new server, and then the files are deleted from the previous appliance.

According to an industry analyst, that online process without RainStorage usually requires appliance downtime, backing the information up to tape libraries using conversion software, and shutting out users while the new appliance is loaded up. "Rainfinity automatically switches the files online while users can still access them off the old box," says Dianne McAdam, an analyst at Illuminata Inc. She says she's unaware of any other product that can to that.