Storbyte: Active On-Line HDD Storage System With 4U 96-Drives SBJ Series

Storbyte introduced its SBJ series of hardware-defined storage solutions that offer a 100% zero power, near-line/archive, tape on a shelf alternative, offering organizations a purpose-built solution delivering a verifiable data validation and protection plan capability that tape cannot provide.

The SBJ 4:96 is a system that manages 100% zero power to an individual drive, individual drawer or dataset transparent to the host. Featuring 96 spinning disks in a 4U enclosure, the enterprise active archive, permanent true disk library offers 1,344TB of raw capacity complete with a complement of featured data services. The question is not ‘was the data written’, ‘is the data still there’ is the only question we need to know. With Active-Audit functionality, the SBJ series allows organizations to complete a user definable, recurring 100% total archive, background, data integrity audit to guarantee data integrity.

“For years, we’ve debated disk vs. tape when it comes to the best medium for backup and archive,” said Diamond Lauffin, chief evangelist and design architect, Storbyte. “While some disk enclosures enable ‘spin down’ modes, they still maintain multiple volts of power to every single disk, making them less efficient than tape on a shelf. Without argument this has been a benefit win for tape. With our SBJ series, you can now completely power down your drives while maintaining host/drive connectivity to achieve the first active on-line disk system that provides a Zero Power alternative equal to tape on a shelf.“

But the real benefit of our feature set is the ability to responsibly approach the question of ‘is my data still there’ I have personally architected some of the largest tape installations in the world. The issue has always been ‘Do I have enough tape drives to perform a regular zero impact background data integrity audit while still supporting daily activity’ The unfortunate answer is based on cost virtually no tape system provides this. The SBJ 4:96 provides the ability to now make this an affordable capability.

The company’s ‘Fixed Flex Frame’ hardware chassis boast an original ‘true,’ future-proof architecture providing an independent component level scale-up and scale-out, user accessible, standards-based upgradability model. These systems were designed to maximize rack space efficiencies while providing 100% on-line, all the time, hot swap redundancy; true enterprise availability at close to white box price points.

In addition to its 96-drive model, the SBJ product family also features 48 and 60-drive advanced storage servers and expansion JBODs and JBOFs for flexibility of deployment and cost correct offerings.