Hammer Z-Box Surpasses the Competition in Benchmark Testing
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TPI Technologies Testing Confirms Hammer Z-Box as Fastest Network Storage in Its Class
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 20 / Hammer(TM) Storage, a division of Bell Microproducts Inc. (NASDAQ:BELM), announced today that performance testing of its new Hammer Storage Z-Box(TM) verifies that it is the top performer in its price class, boasting transfer rates in excess of 80 MB/sec. The Z-Box was tested against storage products from IBM, Dell/EMC, Buffalo, Infrant, Iomega and others, according to Bryan Nash, vice president and general manager of Hammer Storage.
The testing was conducted by Toigo Partners International (TPI) Technologies of Tampa, Fla., a leading consultant in network storage, and the official testing laboratory of the Data Management Institute. "Hammer's Z- Box is quite possibly the first true implementation we have seen of 'networked storage,'" said Jon Toigo, CEO of TPI. "In fact, it is quite possibly the most exciting thing to happen in storage since the invention of the disk drive."
"TPI Technologies' testing underscores the Hammer Storage commitment to our customers," said Nash. "Just like large enterprises, today's smaller businesses need storage solutions that are faster, more scalable, easier to manage and less expensive. It is our goal to fill an enormous gap that exists in the storage industry by solving real business issues for smaller companies that now have storage requirements similar to large enterprises."
TPI laboratories tested the Hammer Z-Box (HZD4B), a four-bay, hot-swap SATA, desktop storage solution with a single GbE port. The Z-Box and its competitors were tested for both maximum IOPS (input/output operations per second) and maximum throughput. TPI Laboratories believes that, taken together, the two measures paint a complete picture of system performance.
In both tests, the Hammer Z-Box, based on Zetera's Z-SAN(TM) technology and part of the Z-Series(TM) line, outperformed the competition in almost all categories. The Z-Box bested NAS devices from Thecus, Buffalo, Infrant and Iomega, as well as iSCSI devices from Dell/EMC and IBM. The $1,299 (MSRP) Z- Box is price-competitive with the Thecus, Buffalo and Infrant devices, and costs substantially less than the Iomega, Dell/EMC, and IBM devices.
Hammer Storage partnered with Zetera and Seagate to bring the Z-Series to market, providing storage that is faster, more scalable, easier to manage and less expensive. Built upon Zetera's Z-SAN technology, the Z-Series line uses SoIP (Storage over Internet Protocol) to optimize performance, scalability and ease of use. The Seagate drives used in the Z-Series provide data integrity and faster access speed to ensure organizations can meet their bulk storage needs while maintaining the lowest total cost of ownership.
"The advanced features along with increased performance, capacity and reliability of both Zetera's Z-SAN architecture and Seagate's drives made it possible to design the innovative, flexible and cost-effective Z-Series solutions," added Nash.
The Hammer Z-Series family includes the Z-Box desktop and the Z-Rack(TM) 1U rackmount, both with capacities of up to two terabytes per device. Both the Hammer Z-Box and Z-Rack offer several exclusive features unavailable through competing products:
o Eliminates need for and cost of specialized hardware like Fibre Channel
switches, host-bus adapters, TCP offload engines and RAID controllers
o Aggregates for capacity up to 128 PB per volume across multiple
enclosures
o Aggregates for performance of 10+ GB/sec across multiple enclosures
o Distributed RAID delivers hardware RAID functionality and the ability
to extend RAID volumes across physical enclosures
o Multi-initiator file system delivers NAS-like file and volume sharing
on a block-based device
o Z-SAN technology from Zetera simultaneously optimizes on performance,
scalability, reliability and cost
Other Hammer Z-Series features include:
o Supports up to four (4) SATA-1 or SATA-2 disk drives
o Supports capacities up to 2 terabytes, configured to order
o Gigabit Ethernet network interface
o Optimized performance in excess of 80 MB/sec per enclosure
o Compact Z-Box desktop or industry-standard Z-Rack 1U rackmount form
factors
o Compatibility with Windows® 2000, Windows® XP, Windows® 2003 and
Redhat Linux 4 (available Q3)
o Includes Hammer Personal Storage Manager software suite
The Hammer Z-Series will include solutions offering greater than 9TB capacity per enclosure later in 2006. For more information on the Hammer Z-Series solutions, visit www.Hammer-Storage.com. To download this report in full, visit http://www.hammer-storage.com/business_download_form.asp.
About Bell Microproducts Inc.
Bell Microproducts is an international, value-added provider of a wide range of high-technology products, solutions, and services to the industrial and commercial markets. The company's offering includes semiconductors, computer platforms, peripherals, and storage products of various types including desktop, high-end computer and storage subsystems, fibre channel connectivity products, RAID, NAS and SAN storage systems, back-up products, storage management software, and extensive support, integration and installation services. Bell Microproducts is an industry-recognized specialist in storage products and is one of the world's largest storage-centric value- added distributors.
The company's products are available at any level of integration, from components to subsystem assemblies and fully-integrated, tested and certified system solutions. The company adds value with a broad range of services including testing, software loading, kitting, mass storage system integration, and computer system integration. Trained and certified technical personnel complete each of these processes at Bell Microproducts' ISO 9001:2000 facilities. Bell Microproducts markets and distributes more than 125 brand name product lines, as well as its own Rorke Data and Hammer Storage brands, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), contract electronic manufacturing services (EMS) customers, value-added resellers (VARs) and system integrators in the Americas and Europe. More information can be found in the company's SEC filings, or by visiting the Bell Microproducts Web site at www.Bellmicro.com. For more information on Hammer Storage, please call 1-888-444-9977 or visit www.Hammer-Storage.com.
About Zetera Corporation
Founded in 2002, Zetera Corporation is a developer of a patent-pending technology that enables networked storage to be realized at unprecedented price-performance levels. The technology was invented by the creators of the IDE and ATAPI disk drive standards, which have shipped in billions of disk drives. Leveraging the latest IP advances, Zetera has created a new class of network storage technology that is superior in performance, cost, scalability and compatibility to all other types of network storage. Based in Irvine, Calif., Zetera licenses its technology to leading storage, computer, peripheral and device manufacturers worldwide, including Bell Microproducts and Netgear. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.zetera.com.
Source: Bell Microproducts Inc.
CONTACT: Dena Jacobson of Lages & Associates, +1-949-453-8080, or dena@lages.com, for Bell Microproducts Inc.
Web site: www.zetera.com/
Web site: http://www.hammer-storage.com/
Web site: http://www.bellmicro.com/
