Modular iSCSI RAID Array leverages redundant controllers.
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Press Release Summary:
Based on R/Evolution Architecture, 2330 iSCSI RAID storage solution features 2U rack size with 12 drives and supports up to 56 SAS and SATA arrays that can be mixed in single enclosure or individual expansion trays for capacity up to 42 Tb. Scalable solution supports RAID 6 and includes two 1-Gigabit Ethernet ports per controller, with 512 Mb of mirrored cache each. Data protection offerings include active-active controllers, MPIO, volume copy, and snapshot technologies.
Original Press Release:
Dot Hill Launches 2330 iSCSI RAID Array
Offering Performance and Scalability, the Dot Hill 2330 Delivers Enterprise-class Functionality Combined with Ease of Management
Based on Dot Hill's Proven R/Evolution Architecture, the 2330 Marks Dot Hill's Initial Foray into the iSCSI Market
DALLAS, Oct. 15 - STORAGE NETWORKING WORLD FALL 2007 - Dot Hill Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:HILL), a market leader in providing flexible storage offerings and responsive service and support to OEMs and system integrators (SIs), today launched its 2330 iSCSI RAID storage solution, the newest iteration of its high-performance, modular enterprise 2000 Series storage platform.
Building on the success of Dot Hill's 2730 and 2730 Turbo Fibre Channel RAID platforms, the 2330 marks Dot Hill's initial foray into the iSCSI market. Research firm IDC reported that iSCSI storage revenue grew by 68.6 percent during the first quarter last year, and is expected to account for about 25 percent of storage revenues in 2011.
"The newest addition to Dot Hill's 2000 family of modular disk arrays, the 2330 offers an attractive price point for the volume storage market, combined with enterprise-class connectivity, availability, management features, and functionality, as well as the advantages of simplicity of installation and management," said Dana Kammersgard, president and chief executive officer, Dot Hill. "The 2330 enables Dot Hill to serve a completely new market in the entry level to mid range storage space, offering incremental footprint opportunities."
Now shipping through several Dot Hill partners worldwide and starting at a suggested list price of around $13,500 fully drive-populated, the 2330 offers enterprise performance and scalability. The 2330 includes two 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports per controller with 512 megabytes of mirrored cache per controller.
The 2330 features a 2U rack size with 12 drives and supports up to 56 low-cost, high capacity SAS and SATA arrays, offering customers the ability to freely mix drives in a single enclosure or in individual expansion trays for industry leading capacity of up to 42 terabytes.
The 2330 supports RAID 6, and does so with only minimal performance degradation (a mere 3-5 percent over RAID 5). The rise in the use of high-capacity SATA drives and their increased use for primary storage is driving the need for RAID 6. These larger capacity drives can trigger long rebuild times - meaning the system is more vulnerable to secondary drive failures. RAID 6 provides protection from a second drive failure during rebuild.
Additionally, the product features a number of data protection services, such as active-active controllers, MPIO, volume copy and snapshot technologies. The 2330 comes standard with 16 snapshots.
Customers seeking investment protection can benefit via the ability to convert Dot Hill 2330 iSCSI products to Dot Hill's Fibre Channel 2730 or 2730 Turbo products (or vice versa) via a simple data-in-place controller exchange. This unique capability promotes sound financial planning with the re-use of disk array subsystem enclosure components, including disk drives.
The 2330 leverages several unique patented and patent-pending technologies collectively known as EcoStor(TM) that deliver economic benefits in an environmentally sound manner. These include Dot Hill's innovative EcoStor battery-free cache alternative that leverages super capacitors.
"We are seeing tremendous interest in iSCSI for Windows environments, specifically around SharePoint and VMware environments," said Tony Asaro, senior analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group. "The Dot Hill 2330 is built on their unified platform that provides an excellent price/performance ratio, scalability, availability and a number of valuable data management features. Dot Hill pays attention to details that most other vendors do not and that can make a huge difference out in the field, which is critical especially when one of the main priorities with data storage is to reduce risk."
Dot Hill Delivers Technology Advantage
The 2330 leverages the following advanced technologies, delivering industry leading performance and scalability:
- SimulCache(TM) - One of the keys to the 2330's breakthrough performance is Dot Hill's SimulCache technology. SimulCache leverages redundant RAID controllers, thus eliminating the performance degradation associated with conventional cache mirroring. The implementation of a high-speed dedicated PCI-Express bus streamlines write performance resulting in superior overall system responsiveness driving faster application throughput in database-related deployments. This can benefit companies by increasing the number of transactions they can process - i.e. by booking more airline reservations, or more stock trades - driving increased revenues.
- AssuredSnap(TM) - The 2330 also features Dot Hill's snapshot technology for improved data availability and business continuity. As mentioned previously, the 2330 ships with 16 concurrent snapshots, and offers customers the flexibility to add up to 64 snapshots with an optional license.
AssuredSnap creates a point-in-time virtual copy of data that the system can roll back to, in the event of data loss or corruption. All snapshots are preserved in the event of a roll back; AssuredSnap also features a unique roll forward capability. Additional AssuredSnap features include writeable snapshots for real-time data mining, rapid application development, the preservation of original and written data, and snapshot reset for scripted backups.
- AssuredCopy(TM) - The 2330 features Dot Hill's volume copy technology, which provides the ability to create independent data volume copies for additional data protection. In addition to protection against accidental or malicious loss or corruption of data, AssuredCopy protects against RAID group or complete volume failure. AssuredCopy also enables non-disruptive use of production data for business analytics or application development and test, mitigating resource contention and performance impact on production volumes.
- EcoStor battery-free alternative for cache back up - the 2330 uses an environmentally friendly, "green" battery-free alternative for cache back up, that leverages a combination of super capacitors and compact flash technology for non-volatile cache memory.
In the event of a power interruption, the cache in the storage unit is powered by super capacitors; the cache is then transferred to compact flash, ensuring it is stored safely and securely - indefinitely. This approach also provides a "trickle charge" to the cache, eliminating the need to re-sync the contents of the compact flash in the event the outage was due to a "brown out."
This reduces total cost of ownership and enhances the user experience in a number of ways. With up to a 10-year life span, the solution eliminates service calls for battery replacement, new battery inventory management, and the issues of battery disposal, as well as the periodic replacement downtime associated with batteries. Additionally, it offers an improved customer experience upon installation or power restore as it does not require lengthy battery charging time. The array operates in high-performance write-back cache mode within minutes of installation, versus hours with batteries.
The third major product launched this year by Dot Hill, the 2330 is based on the company's Rapid Evolution (R/Evolution) architecture; to date, the company has deployed more than 7,000 units based on this architecture.
The R/Evolution product line offers superior modular scalability and features resulting in higher return on investment and lower total cost of ownership. The modular, dynamic system offers high availability and a fault tolerant design; it is designed to rapidly evolve, enabling OEMs to quickly achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the volume storage market.
About Dot Hill
Delivering innovative technology and global support, Dot Hill empowers the OEM community to bring unique storage solutions to market, quickly, easily and cost-effectively. Offering high performance and industry-leading uptime, Dot Hill's RAID technology is the foundation for best-in-class storage solutions offering enterprise-class security, availability and data protection. The company's products are in use today by the world's leading service and equipment providers, common carriers, advanced technology and telecommunications companies as well as government agencies. Dot Hill solutions are certified to meet rigorous industry standards and military specifications, as well as RoHS and WEEE international environmental standards. Headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., Dot Hill has offices and/or representatives in China, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States. For more information, visit us at http://www.dothill.com/.
CONTACT: Erin Lutz of Lutz PR, +1-949-293-1055, erinlutz@cox.net, for Dot Hill Systems Corp.
