EARTH SCIENCES

S2A9550 delivers unique level of data protection and RAID 6, increasing SATA storage data integrity, reliability, and performance DataDirect Networks Inc., the storage performance and capacity leader, announced that it has shipped over 20 Petabytes of RAID 6 storage solutions in the last ten months. Released in November of 2005, DataDirect's RAID 6 storage solutions have proven to be the industry's most reliable and scalable SATA disk based archive storage solution aimed at filling the gap between enterprise disk storage and archival tape. Earlier this year, DataDirect unveiled its latest RAID 6 storage offering, the S2A9550. DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliance (S2A) 9550 SATA disk-based storage solution, is specifically designed to address the industry's requirement for reliable and scalable storage in the face of shrinking storage budgets and the exponential rise in data growth across the high performance computing, cluster computing, rich media and commercial markets. The S2A9550 provides data centers with the world's largest, most dense and most reliable SATA disk-based archive solution, balancing between cost prohibitive enterprise disk storage versus performance limiting tape archive solutions. "Data centers are looking to cost-effective, robust and scalable SATA storage solutions to manage the growth of their high-value data," said Paul Bloch, president of DataDirect Networks. "Our S2A9550 SATA storage solutions are positioned between costly primary disk storage and secondary tape storage, balancing production and storage requirements in terms of reliability, accessibility and cost. The S2A9550 SATA storage solution allows IT managers to make their existing storage infrastructure more efficient, while matching data growth with less expensive SATA storage." DataDirect Networks' S2A9550 RAID 6 storage solution is a combination of its industry leading, 7th generation S2A and a volume metric efficient 48 SATA drive package. The S2A9550 with its silicon enabled intelligence checks parity for all read I/Os for guaranteed data integrity from SATA drives. This unique level of data protection with no loss in performance from mid-range storage, allows organizations to implement a reliable enterprise-class active archive or nearline solution that can scale up to 720 TB non-disruptively in a two rack system -- up to 5 times more scalable than other comparable disk-based storage systems. With increased RAID 6 data protection, the S2A9550 provides worry-free disk-based storage with the industry's best price per capacity per square foot storage solution for fixed content and large file storage, backup and recovery systems. The S2A9550 RAID 6 storage solutions are differentiated from any other available SATA storage solutions by several key attributes: -- Parallel Parity Processing Engine (P3E) for on-the-fly parity checking of all read I/Os for greater SATA solution data integrity. -- Disk Controller Engine (DCE) to manage SATA disk drive latencies and to deliver data in a timely manner. -- DirectRAID technology for RAID 6 data protection with no loss of performance. -- 48-slot high density disk drive chassis for 720TB in a two rack footprint. -- Sleep mode feature for dramatically reduced power and cooling needs. "The S2A9550 RAID 6 storage solution allows an organization to build on top of its existing storage infrastructure, affording significant investment protection. Moreover, the S2A9550 RAID 6 solution with its volume metric efficiency, results in lower storage cost, facility costs and operating expenses for a dramatically lower total-cost-of-ownership," concluded Bloch. To learn more about DataDirect Networks' S2A9550 RAID 6 storage solutions -- please go to its Web site to download the latest white paper entitled "DataDirect Networks S2A9550 Archive Solution, Industry's Most Reliable SATA Storage Solution".