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Tag: sata

  • Panasas Announces the World's Highest-Performance File Storage System

    Panasas intoroduced the ActiveStor Series 9 parallel storage system, which is believed to be the highest-performance file storage system in the world, as the company claims.

    "This is an exciting performance breakthrough for our industry," said Randy Strahan, CEO of Panasas.

    The new company’s system achieves its unprecedented performance by using multiple storage technologies via a synchronized architecture combining three tiers of storage — cache, SSD, and SATA — on each blade.

    It utilizes the Intel® X25-E Extreme SATA SSD for meta-data operations and smaller user files. Larger files are handled by cost-effective, large-capacity SATA disk drives.

    Unlike single-dimensional storage solutions, which offer either high-bandwidth performance or optimized IOPS, the ActiveStor uses multiple storage technologies in a synchronized architecture to produce both.

    A single 42U rack configured with the new Series 9 system is capable of delivering an estimated 80,000 NFS operations per second, as well as 6 gigabytes per second of throughput. Additional performace can be gained in a linear fashion simply by adding additional Panasas shelves or racks to a configuration.

    This unique "no compromise" combination of performance and expandability allows Panasas to deliver industry-leading throughput, as well as IOPs performance as much as 80 percent higher than most competitive storage systems. In addition, the new Panasas system can achieve these results with fewer disk drives than others, the company claims.

    According to Strahan, this new system expands Panasas’ ability to help customers save money across their storage infrastructure by increasing their ability to consolidate a wider variety of applications and workloads in a single storage architecture, including high-performance clustered applications, single-client applications, and technical and commercial applications running NFS and CIFS file protocols.

    "Panasas has now upped the ante in terms of performance relative to footprint and is allowing customers to reduce management costs and increase productivity by consolidating on a single platform," said Terri McClure, senior analyst at analyst firm Enterprise Strategy Group.

    "Inadequate performance of storage is a major inhibitor of the compute environment to perform with enough speed to support the data intensive problems companies are required to solve today."

  • Pillar First to Deliver 2TB SATA to Enterprise Customers

    Pillar Data Systems, the provider of Application-Aware storage systems, is the first network storage company to make 2 terabyte SATA drives available to the enterprise market.

    The drives have been introduced in a frame of the company’s initiative to “Stop Storage Waste” and will be available as a part of the its Axiom storage system.

    The new drives push the Axiom’s overall usable capacity to over 1.6 petabytes per system, while driving down overall power consumption by 50 percent and space consumption by 2X.

    According to the company, Pillar is the only storage vendor to guarantee 80-percent utilization on its Axiom storage system. “No other open systems storage array on the market today can deliver that level of disk utilization without performance degradation,” they assure.

    The Pillar Axiom differentiates performance based on application priority, what Pillar calls Application Aware Storage. The company claims that this system “can dramatically reduce floor space and energy demands, and lower Total Cost of Ownership by up to 50 percent.”

    Additionally, the Axiom system performed the fastest rebuild times in the industry, according to an independent analyst report. In April the Demartek’s study showed the Pillar Axiom 500 performed the fastest drive rebuilds – up to 71-percent faster – with minimal impact to application performance, when compared to competitors EMC (EMC CX3-40) and Network Appliance (NetApp FAS3050c.)

    “As drive sizes continue to increase, more storage will be wasted unless you have a storage architecture that can utilize the full capacity with no performance degradation,” said Bob Maness, Vice President of Pillar Data Systems.

    “Our latest innovations around SSDs and now 2TB drives will make it even easier for end-users to increase capacity and performance, while improving the overall efficiency of their system,” he added.

  • LSI Launches RAID Controller Cards Based On 6Gb/s SAS Technology


    LSI has launched a new generation of MegaRAID SATA+SAS RAID controller cards based on 6Gb/s SAS technology.

    The storage and networking solution provider has also announced its new channel strategy for worldwide customers.

    Compared with 3Gb/s predecessors, the company said the 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-chip (ROC) system provides more video streams, more database transactions and faster backups.

    This enables the MegaRAID 9200 series controllers to double the data transfer rate and deliver up to 2.88 GB/s in sequential reads and 1.87 GB/s in sequential writes, according to the company.

    The 9200 series controllers also provide channel customers with a low-cost upgrade that is designed to easily integrate with existing 3Gb/s SATA and SAS infrastructure, the company said.

    Suresh Panikar, senior manager of worldwide channel partner marketing and communications at LSI, said the controllers also support both high-performance SAS hard drives and cost-effective, high-capacity SATA drives, as well as energy-efficient solid state drives (SSDs) and bring standardized zoning which improves storage efficiencies by allowing multiple servers to share storage devices.

    They come with four ports and eight ports to reach up to a storage capacity of 480 terabytes.

    The new LSI MegaRAID controllers include five models – MegaRAID 9260-8i (eight internal ports), MegaRAID 9260-4i (four internal ports), MegaRAID 9280-8e (eight external ports), MegaRAID 9260DE-8i and MegaRAID 9280DE-8e. The 9260-8i is available now while the rest will be available by September.

    In addition to the next-generation product, the company announced it has teamed up with channel partners include vertical OEMs (VOEMs), direct market resellers (DMRs), resellers, and distributors to service its customers worldwide. LSI also provides forward looking fundings to those channel partners quarterly in advance for them to have more sufficient resources in promoting and selling LSI products.

    Phil Bullinger, executive vice president and general manager of the Engenio Storage Group at LSI, said: "LSI’s strong channel partnerships are a key strategic advantage in the marketplace and central to the company’s business strategy."

  • Adaptec Introduces Greener More Efficient RAID Controllers


    Adaptec has announced the availability of its Series 5Z Unified Serial (SATA/SAS) RAID controller family.

    The company said these high-performance controllers integrate an industry first – a flash-based Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection module that provides data center managers with a single controller solution for data protection in the event of both power loss and drive failure.

    Designed to replace a current generation of Lithium Ion battery-based cache back-up devices, the Adaptec RAID Series 5Z is an integrated solid state solution designed to "significantly reduce" annual data center operating costs and environmental impact.

    The controllers offer an integrated, maintenance-free design, eliminating the need to monitor battery charge levels or shut down servers for battery replacement.

    Scott Cleland, director of marketing, Adaptec, said that as enterprise storage demands skyrocket, there is an enormous need for feature-rich, maintenance-free data storage I/O solutions that work to lower overall IT costs and provide significant environmental advantages.

    "For both SATA and SAS drives, the Adaptec Series 5Z family not only delivers the performance, scalability and power efficiency that our customers demand, but with Zero-Maintenance Cache Protection, it offers a simple, maintenance-free solution that provides a critical layer of data protection that is often overlooked," he said.

    All three Adaptec Series 5Z controllers are available now priced at the following MSRPs: Adaptec RAID 5405Z (USD $785), Adaptec RAID 5805Z (USD $965), Adaptec RAID 5445Z (USD $1,045).

  • Phoenix Introduces Fastest, Most Versatile SSD VME Mass Storage Module


    Phoenix International has unveiled its new VS1-250-SSD Serial Attache SCSI (SAS) or Serial ATA (SATA) based VME data storage plug-in blade.

    The VS1-250-SSD delivers high capacity, high performance data storage – with burst data transfer rate to 300MB/sec and sustained data transfer to 120MB/sec.

    The 6 U module can hold one or two SAS or SATA SSDs with a total capacity up to 512GB.

    It can be interfaced through its front panel connector or its P2 connector.

    The module is intended for military, aerospace and industrial applications requiring rugged, secure and durable mass data storage.

    Other major features of the Phoenix VS1-250-SSD Solid State Disk Module include:

    • Operational temperature from -40o to 85o C
    • Individual point-to-point device connectivity
    • Low power consumption
    • 1,300,000 MTBF
    • Integrated SLC NAND Flash
    • Meets military and IRIG 106-07 declassification standards
    • Advanced flash management for enhanced reliability and durability
    • 80,000 feet operational altitude
    • 50g, 11 ms operational shock
    • 16g rms, 10-2000Hz random vibration

    No information has been released on pricing and availability.

  • Adaptec Announces Support For VMware vSphere


    Adaptec has announced that its newly launched Series 5 Unified Serial (SATA/SAS) RAID Controller Family will be providing support for VMware vSphere.

    The VMware Technology Alliance Partner (TAP) program member’s controller family is supported natively via an in-box driver, ready for immediate installation.

    VMware vSphere is the industry’s first cloud operating system. It allows datacenters to be transformed into simplified cloud infrastructures.

    Scott Cleland, director of marketing at Adaptec, said that by supporting VMware vSphere, Adaptec can further extend the value of its Series 5 Unified Serial (SATA/SAS) RAID Controller Family into customers’ next-generation datacenters.

    He said this helps customers to manage large collections of infrastructure — including CPUs, storage and networking — as a seamless, flexible and dynamic cloud environment.

    "Virtualization and cloud computing environments are constantly changing and adapting to meet the demands of growing enterprises," he said.

    "VMware vSphere provides the most feature-rich solution available today to meet and exceed these growing needs."

  • EMC Unveils Virtual Data Centre With High End Storage


    EMC Symmetric VMax is the latest breakthrough technology from EMC. It provides for a virtual data center with high end storage and scales up to 2 PB of usable protected capacity, writes Samantha Sai for storage.biz-news.

    Unlike alternate arrays, it equips its customers with an ability to consolidate workloads with a comparatively small footprint.

    These systems will be available immediately.

    Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman, President and CEO said: "The shift from physical to virtual computing is being driven by efficiency gains too compelling to ignore.

    "Virtualization’s ability to maximize resources and automate complex and repetitive manual tasks is overtaking the server world and is now happening in the storage world.

    "EMC is leading the way with the biggest breakthrough in new high-end storage design in nearly two decades, enabling storage customers to deploy a flexible, dynamic, energy-efficient information infrastructure and get the maximum value for their investment."

    The new architecture can be deployed with flash, Fibre channel and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives.
    Virtualized and physical servers are supported including open systems, mainframes and system hosts.

    The Virtual Logical unit number (LUN) technology moves data to the right tiers and redundant array of independent disks (RAID) types at the right time.

    Virtual provisioning efficiently allocates, grows and reclaims storage.

    The Extended distance protection replicates data over distances and achieves zero data loss protection.

    Information centric security systems with advanced RSA security technology have been built in to keep the data safe; reduce risk and improve compliance. The high end storage array uses multi core processors to lower power costs and IOPS per dollar.

  • WD Enters Solid-State Drive Market With Acquisition Of SiliconSystems


    Western Digital has completed a USD $65 million cash acquisition of leading solid-state drives supplier, SiliconSystems.

    SiliconSystems’ product portfolio includes solid-state drives with SATA, EIDE, PC Card, USB and CF interfaces in 2.5-inch, 1.8-inch, CF and other form factors.

    Since its inception in 2002, SiliconSystems has sold millions of SiliconDrive products to the network-communications, industrial, embedded-computing, medical, military and aerospace markets.

    These markets accounted for approximately one third of worldwide solid-state drive revenues in 2008.

    John Coyne, president and CEO of WD, said its worldwide infrastructure and technical and financial resources will enable further growth in SiliconSystems’ existing markets and customer relationships.

    He said SiliconSystems’ intellectual property and technical expertise will provide additional building blocks for future products to address emerging opportunities in WD’s existing markets.

    "The combination will be modestly accretive to revenue and margins as a result of SiliconSystems’ existing position as a trusted supplier to the well-established USD $400 million market for embedded solid-state drives," he said.

    "SiliconSystems’ intellectual property and technical expertise will significantly accelerate WD’s solid-state drive development programs for the netbook, client and enterprise markets, providing greater choice for our customers to satisfy all their storage requirements."

    Integration into WD begins immediately, with SiliconSystems now becoming known as the WD Solid-State Storage business unit, complementing WD’s existing Branded Products, Client Storage, Consumer Storage and Enterprise Storage business units.

  • Nexsan Launches iSCSI SAN Aimed at Standalone or Virtualised IT Environments


    Nexsan has introduced its first iSCSI SAN, which has been specifically designed and priced to give SMBs and SMEs a new value-alternative in implementing the protocol.

    The Nexsan iSeries is intended as a complete, easy-to-implement, enterprise-class SAN that is ideal for use in standalone or fully virtualised IT environments.

    It is available in two configurations which include additional storage expansion to meet customers growing data storage requirements.

    Bob Woolery, Nexsan’s senior vice president of marketing, said the iSeries gives customers flexibility and value.

    "We’ve designed the iSeries to give customers a solution with all the storage services, data protection and scalability they need at a price they can afford," he said.

    "And, we’re giving our channel partners a new value alternative in this growing market segment. We’ve truly changed the game with value."

    The iSeries offers iSCSI, Fibre Channel and NAS configurations from the same system and provides up to 1PB of storage.

    It also includes a complete suite of easy-to-use enterprise storage services, including virtualisation.

    Woolery said the iSeries was being sold for a single up-front price to affordably accommodate a company’s increasing storage needs.

    "This holistic approach simplifies pricing, removes hidden costs and licensing fees associated with competitive products and smoothly accommodates an organisation’s IT requirements as they change," he said.

    Other benefits offered by the Nexsan iSeries include:

    • Virtualised storage for flexibility and intelligent automation of routine tasks
    • High performance for running multiple demanding applications from a single high-density system
    • Simultaneous use of SAS and/or SATA disk drives in the same storage chassis for application flexibility and low-cost scalability
    • VMware-certified, ensuring high performance in both physical and virtual environments
    • Easy to deploy and manage with wizard-based setup, administration and central management of volumes, snapshots, HA/data replication, mirroring and data migration
    • High-performance with up to four RAID engines per storage system
    • Nexsan’s AutoMAID™ energy-saving technology reduces energy costs by up to 60% without compromising application performance
    • Key application support: storage pooling, virtual servers, archiving
    • High-speed, highly responsive – hyper transport bus, real-time OS, enterprise-class network chip set
    • Fully redundant and designed for 99.999% availability
    • Available immediately through Nexsan’s global network of authorized value-added resellers.