InfoStor : New product recap, November 2008 Page 1

November 20, 2008 -- Recent product announcements from LSI, Virtual Instruments, and Quantum...

LSI enhances 7900 HPC storage system
LSI's new Engenio DE6900 high-density SATA drive enclosure and 8Gbps Fibre Channel (8GFC) host connectivity are enhancements to the company's Engenio 7900 HPC storage system. Designed for compute-intensive applications and high-bandwidth workloads, the storage system combines performance with availability and reliability features for applications requiring continuous high-speed data accessibility, according to company claims.

Based on sixth-generation LSI architecture, the Engenio DE6900 SATA drive enclosure enhances the 7900 HPC system's ability to handle the massive data requirements of high-performance computing (HPC) applications. The unit is a 4U, 19-inch rack-mountable drive enclosure capable of housing a total of 60 3.5-inch high-capacity SATA drives for a maximum capacity of 60TB in a single enclosure.

The new enclosure offers a 2.8× density increase compared to the current 16-drive Fibre Channel enclosure, enabling more drives per unit of rack space and scaling capacity to 480 SATA drives within the same footprint. The increased density translates into more than 30% savings on power consumption and greater than 65% savings on floor space to achieve similar performance and capacity.

The Engenio 7900 HPC storage system is presently available through select OEM partners. LSI, www.lsi.com/7900hpc/

Virtual Instruments intros TAP
Finisar spin-off Virtual Instruments recently began shipping an enhanced Traffic Analysis Point (TAP) device that can be integrated as a component in the company's NetWisdom Enterprise SAN monitoring suite or used as a stand-alone device. The analysis appliance enables real-time Fibre Channel network transaction monitoring, analysis and diagnostics with the goal of reducing SAN downtime and optimizing performance.

NetWisdom provides application-to-SAN monitoring and "visibility," and the TAP device allows storage network administrators to view data flowing between their SANs and applications. The TAP device provides a passive diagnostic layer for network maintenance, access points for monitoring equipment and detecting failures, monitoring of disk array ports, and "health check" functionality for network optimization.

Each TAP appliance comes with four ports (with an optional 1U chassis that supports up to 16 ports), with pricing starting at $300 per port.

Virtual Instruments was spun off from Finisar in June. In its first three months of operation, the company claims to have shipped more NetWisdom products than Finisar shipped in the preceding 12 months. Finisar is a Virtual Instruments partner and investor.
Virtual Instruments, www.virtualinstruments.com

Quantum debuts streamlined de-duplication
Quantum now offers a preconfigured Dxi appliance model optimized for small and medium-sized enterprise environments, as well as a new configuration. Together, the DXi7500 Express disk backup system and QuikFit configuration program offer a streamlined path to deploying and managing de-duplication in a wide range of distributed and midrange offerings.

The DXi7500 Express is a turnkey DXi7500 de-duplication offering with all the hardware and software needed for midrange environments, including VTL and NAS interface licenses. Customers can upgrade the system with replication and path-to-tape capabilities for systems designed to be used in multi-site environments and edge-to-core architectures.

The DXi7500 Express is part of Quantum's family of DXi-Series disk-based backup solutions, which also includes the DXi3500 appliance. Quantum's DXi-Series solutions are scalable in the field to meet the needs of enterprise environments while preserving their data with direct tape creation, policy-based deduplication, and enterprise-level capacity and performance.

The DXi7500 Express is available immediately with an MSRP of $98,250.
Quantum, www.quantum.com

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