Coraid Ethernet SAN Array With 36 HDDs

Coraid Inc. unveiled its high-density Ethernet SAN array, the EtherDrive SRX4200.  

The new array is designed for high-performance cloud and enterprise data centers, packing a mix of 36 SATA, SAS, or SSD drives into a four rack-unit chassis. In addition, Coraid has released a RESTful storage management interface enabling cloud automation and scripting for the SRX4200, and this capability will also be available for other EtherDrive products.

Starting at under $600 per terabyte, the SRX4200 delivers performance of up to 1,800 MB/sec, with multiple 10 Gb Ethernet connections per shelf, providing a 5-8x price performance advantage over Fibre Channel storage solutions. Each SRX4200 supports 72 TB of capacity with currently available 2 TB 3.5" SATA drives, and up to 108 TB with upcoming 3 TB drives, enabling more than a petabyte of storage in each data center rack. Coraid’s scale-out Ethernet SAN architecture enables customers to incrementally grow capacity by simply adding new shelves.

An August 2010 study by ESG Lab validated that Coraid’s EtherDrive SRX-Series solutions deliver faster performance than Fibre Channel, at approximately 20 percent of the cost. ESG was able to configure and provision EtherDrive arrays in less than two minutes from power on. "We are enormously and unequivocally impressed with the raw capabilities, ease-of use and financial attractiveness of Coraid’s EtherDrive SRX platform," said Mark Peters, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "Combining the 50 percent density improvement that the SRX4200 now offers with the newly-added RESTful automation interfaces only enhances the compelling case for EtherDrive to be considered by users that are building private and public cloud storage environments."

RESTful Cloud Automation
REST, an acronym for Representational State Transfer, is an architecture that enables management of distributed systems using simple HTTP, XML or application-based commands. RESTful management has been rapidly adopted in many large data centers because it enables automation of provisioning and management tasks across multiple layers of the IT stack. This level of automation is critical for delivering modern ‘self-service’ cloud services to end users.

Coraid’s Ethernet SAN runs on raw layer 2 Ethernet, eliminating complex layers of legacy Fibre Channel and iSCSI storage, including controller architectures, multi-pathing software, switch configuration, and port bonding. Coraid EtherDrive’s new RESTful interface further extends these advantages, transforming enterprise storage into a utility that integrates seamlessly into the application and compute stack.
 
"Growing storage costs have become a major business challenge for anyone building cloud services. EtherDrive SRX4200 redefines cloud economics with performance that exceeds Fibre Channel, at a lower cost than iSCSI and DAS," said Carl Wright, executive vice president of sales and product management at Coraid. "In addition, EtherDrive’s new RESTful interface provides a powerful layer of automation that extends the natural simplicity of Ethernet SAN in the cloud."

EtherDrive SRX4200 and the RESTful management interface are available immediately through Coraid’s global network of IT solution providers.