In today's data center, information is constantly being accessed, created and moved onto and off of storage systems. Traditionally, these storage systems have required manual data management which has proven to be time-consuming and cumbersome. 3PAR Adaptive Optimization software works with STEC's MACH8IOPS SSDs to give enterprise and public cloud customers the ability to confidently react quickly to changing application and infrastructure requirements. With autonomic storage tiering from 3PAR, changes to data service levels are handled autonomically, at a sub-volume level, and without the need for administrator intervention. As a result, customers are able to leverage the full benefit of STEC's high-performance enterprise SSDs--including optimized transactional speed capabilities and improved overall system efficiency--while meeting data service levels for a lower total cost than spinning media.

"We are thrilled to be partnering with STEC to deliver the combination of SSDs and sub-volume, policy-driven autonomic storage tiering--a first for high-end arrays," said Craig Nunes, Vice President of Marketing for 3PAR. "The unique combination of STEC's MACH8IOPS SSDs and 3PAR Utility Storage has allowed us reduce costs while delivering the performance and agility necessary to meet changing and unpredictable workloads in virtualized environments."

"Clearly the use of automated storage tiering software with our customers' systems will help drive the benefits and demand for SSDs," said Manouch Moshayedi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for STEC. "This collaboration with 3PAR is yet another example of STEC's unique ability to leverage our customers' software innovations to deliver on the promise of high-performance enterprise SSDs used in their systems. We are pleased that 3PAR has been able to find exceptional added value for its end-user after integrating our MACH8IOPS SSDs into its servers."

STEC's MACH8IOPS Solid State Drive is impacting the storage world by delivering to users a high level of reliability and performance in a fully-integrated device. At the heart of the MACH8IOPS Solid State Drive is STEC's leading edge controller able to address multiple flash chips simultaneously for Enterprise-level performance. In addition the MACH8IOPS incorporates the innovative and enterprise-requirement full data path protection, STEC's proprietary set of algorithms capable of protecting data anywhere in the path from HOST to Flash for the ultimate in data loss prevention. The MACH8IOPS SSD product family offers a comprehensive array of options for enterprise system architects making STEC's MACH8IOPS SSD well-suited for Enterprise Storage environments.

For more information regarding this announcement and other important SSD topics, please visit the company's web site at http://www.stec-inc.com/ssd/technology.