LAS VEGAS, NV -- DataDirect Networks, a leading provider of the world's highest performance storage networking appliances, announces the debut of a Silicon Storage Appliance that delivers a plug and play, cost-effective solution to creating storage area networks for workgroups and production environments: the S2A 3000 Silicon Storage Appliance. The S2A 3000 Silicon Storage Appliance is a simple to deploy, easy to manage and affordable storage network appliance that allows broadcasters and professional users to achieve application workflow efficiencies, cost-effective scalability and simplified management. DataDirect Networks' S2A 3000 line is based on the company's proven Silicon Storage Appliance technology, creating a solution for broadcasters offering the leading features of their enterprise-class appliances in a more compact departmental form factor with an exceptionally attractive price point. "The digital content creation (DCC) industry is craving for a great, easy to integrate SAN solution where deployment and management have more to do with standard engineering practices than black magic. Now, with DataDirect's S2A 3000 Silicon Storage Appliance, there's a powerful new light at the end of the tunnel," Yvan Ouellet, co-founder, LOR-TECH International, said. "The S2A 3000 brings a mature workgroup-class appliance for broadcasting and professional use in a configuration which meets the bandwidth hungry, as well as easy to deploy and easy to manage requirements of high-level DCC workgroups." DataDirect Networks has designed the flexible Silicon Storage Appliances to accelerate application productivity, simplify information management, and lower total costs of ownership. Each S2A 3000 Silicon Storage Appliance supplies an aggregate bandwidth up to 400 megabytes per second (depending on requirements) to workgroups typically consisting of one to eight Linux, Unix, Windows NT/2000, Sun, AIX, HP-UX and SGI compute nodes. The S2A 3000 can easily manage storage network environments ranging in capacity from 500 GB to 7 Terabytes. Deploying a workgroup SAN using the S2A 3000 is virtually plug and play, with users easily connecting servers and workstations into one side of the 1U high appliance and commodity-priced JBOD disks into the other side. System configuration and network virtualization is done in a quick, three-step process. Scaling of the storage network and activation of additional software modules (included in the S2A 3000) can be quickly and non-disruptively activated with a software key. "In this era of reduced advertising income and rising production expectations, broadcasters and professional users are faced with the challenge of how to increase workflow efficiencies and productivity, while at the same time having to lower their total cost of ownership," Robert Woolery, vice president corporate development, DataDirect Networks, said. "We've listened to the broadcasting and professional industry and created the S2A 3000 to meet these needs with a simple, easy to manage appliance that allows digital professionals to meet the day-to-day demands of modern day business, with a price/performance combination that is unmatched in our industry." For more information visit www.datadirectnet.com