SCIENCE

Nexsan has announced the launch of the Nexsan E-Series storage systems, purpose built and priced for the mid-market. The new E-Series advances Nexsan's Flexible Storage Platform by delivering a suite of storage systems with industry-leading storage density, power efficiency, and an enterprise-class feature set. The E18 utilizes SAS and/or SSD drives to deliver high performance storage to physical or virtual hosts via a Fibre Channel or iSCSI SAN. The E60 adds industry-leading storage density of 60 drives in 4U of rack space, with the ability to save up to 87% on power, making it perfect for backup to disk and archive applications.

"Many mid-market companies are seeing their data volumes double every two to three years," said Mark Peters, senior analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group. "But IT groups are also typically resource constrained and struggle to provide storage solutions that are robust enough for their environments at a price that aligns with their business model; they need scalable, reliable solutions that can also provide high density, power-efficiency and a rich feature set, yet with simplicity of configuration and deployment. Nexsan's Flexible Storage Platform is designed to meet all these needs and will no doubt enhance the company's reputation for delivering enterprise-class solutions priced for the mid-market."

Nexsan E-Series storage systems have been purpose-built for the mid-market to deliver easy, efficient, enterprise-class storage in a single integrated solution. They feature robust centralized storage management software for simplified deployment, management and support and offer a complete range of enterprise-class features including high density, high reliability, low power operation and small space consumption. The Nexsan E-Series delivers an easy and quick out of the box experience by integrating reliable Nexsan storage hardware and E-Series intelligence. Product models include:

• E18 -- The E18 offers 18 SAS drives in 2U, for up to 10.8 TB of capacity per chassis. The new product can also support mixed SAS/SSD drive types and includes Nexsan's next-generation controller, two 8 Gb/s FC and two 1 Gb/s iSCSI ports per controller, and comes with up to two controllers per E18. It also features a dedicated Ethernet port for management and no single point of failure configurations.
• E60 -- The E60 features 60 SATA/SAS drives in only 4U for up to 120 TB of capacity per chassis. Able to support any mix of drive types, the E60 includes Nexsan's next-generation controller, two 8 Gb/s FC and two 1 Gb/s iSCSI ports per controller, and comes with up to two controllers per system.
• E60X -- The E60 includes 60 SATA/SAS drives in only 4U for up to 120 TB of capacity per chassis. Also able to support any mix of drive types, the E60X offers two 4x SAS connectors and a dedicated Ethernet port for management.

Nexsan's E-Series also features advanced technologies for energy efficiency and high density including:

• Active Drawer Technology -- This revolutionary approach to extreme density simplifies the maintenance of a high density system by offering specially designed cables for continuous operation even when one of three self-contained drawers is momentarily opened so a single person can perform disk and fan service.
• AutoMAID Technology -- This technology delivers "Speed with Green" for up to 87% reduction in power consumption without performance compromise for popular applications such as backup to disk. With the E-Series AutoMAID is extended with Level 4 capabilities, to enable even more power savings.

Available with Nexsan's E-Series is the company's next-generation RAID controller delivering over twice the performance of the previous generation controller. The high-speed cache is mirrored to support dual active/active controller configurations, which offers increased performance and no single point of failure. The cache is backed by both battery and flash memory. The I/O expansion slot on the new controller will host a dual 10 GigE card for high performance iSCSI in Q2 of 2011.

"Our latest generation storage systems are a significant evolutionary step as we give mid-market customers a different kind of storage experience -- one that delivers optimal ease, efficiency and enterprise-class features all in an integrated package priced for their business needs," said Gary Watson, CTO, Nexsan. "With our new product suite comes a next-generation design purpose-built to meet uncompromised demands, enabling our customers to get more from their storage environment."

"With initiatives to streamline operations and lower IT costs, it is imperative that the storage solutions we deploy align with these requirements," said Craig Hill, executive director of IT, eNeighborhoods, Inc. "The impressive density, simplicity and power management features of Nexsan's E-Series makes it exceptionally efficient and an easy choice for our business."

"Nexsan has raised the bar for storage targeted at the mid-market with the release of its E-Series," said Steve Bishop, CTO, VeriStor. "These introductions are all about high reliability, efficiency and ease of use delivered in an innovative and high-performance system. This is another example of the Company's long-term commitment to its channel and mid-market end-users."

The Nexsan's Flexible Storage Platform, including the E18, E60 and E60X are available immediately. Pricing for the E18 with SAS drives and a single controller starts at under $45K MSRP, and the E60 with SATA drives and a single controller starts at under $52K MSRP.