STORAGE

Xyratex Ltd., a leading provider of modular enterprise class data storage subsystems and storage process technology, announced that it is the first manufacturer to offer a complete ultra-high density near-line mass storage system, Model 4835, to the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) storage market. The Xyratex 4835 near-line storage system is aimed at applications requiring large-capacity and low-cost disk storage. Xyratex is demonstrating the 4835 at the Storage Networking World (SNW) Spring exhibition and conference in Phoenix, AZ, from April 12th – 15th in Booth G-7. "Customers are putting huge amounts of data on disk for backup, archiving and unstructured data," said Tony Asaro, Senior Analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group. "The Xyratex 4835 offers massive density in a 4U footprint. Customers are implementing different tiers of storage with great economic results and the 4835 offers a compelling lower tier for all types of data and applications." The Xyratex 4835 delivers over 14 TB of storage in less than 7 inches of rack space (4U). Initial releases support up to 48 x 300 GB SATA drives and either one or two controllers per enclosure. Future releases will support 500 GB SATA drives delivering a total of 24 TB per enclosure. That’s more capacity in one enclosure than most fully expanded storage systems available today. The 4835 includes RAID controller technology developed by Xyratex using a high-performance, single chip RAID Storage Processor from Aristos Logic. This is the first Xyratex disk storage system to incorporate its next generation of highly reliable RAID controllers based on single-chip storage processors. “We are very pleased to have partnered with Xyratex in order to provide this compelling leading edge enterprise storage solution,” commented Anil Gupta, CEO of Aristos Logic. “Our RAID Storage processor technology enables feature rich, cost effective, and high performance solutions, while allowing customers to provide differentiating features valued by end users.” “Xyratex’s long established history of innovation and continuous investment in storage technology development has once again set the standard and raised the price performance bar by making available the first ultra-high density and low-cost near-line mass storage system for OEMs,” added Steve Thompson, Xyratex’s Chief Technical Officer. “We have targeted the 4835 to meet the emerging needs of the high-capacity, low-cost storage systems market which is forecasted to grow at over 30% per year through 2008. This new level of disk drive storage density provides an extremely competitive base for bulk storage applications normally served by rack based magnetic tape technology. The combined advantages of disk drive performance within a high availability system architecture which can deliver tape system level $/GB creates an exciting growth opportunity for us.”