Scale Computing JBOD Clustered Storage at $2,500 per 500GB Node for SMBs

Scale Computing announced N05, its newest unified storage solution aimed at small and medium businesses.

Scale’s N05 Starter Cluster (3 nodes) offers 1.5 TB of storage capacity and features the company’s Intelligent Clustered Storage (ICS) technology. With a price point of $2,500 per node, the N05 Starter Cluster is the combination of low price and high performance to serve the virtualization, archiving and overall storage needs of small-to-medium businesses (SMBs). It’s also the only unified SAN/NAS in its class. Scale exhibited at VMworld’s New Innovator Showcase  at the Moscone Center, San Francisco.
 
Scale’s N05 Starter Cluster is made of up three storage nodes designed with the same easy-to-use ICS technology used in Scale’s Standard and Performance lines of storage nodes. With Scale’s N05 storage nodes, customers can purchase storage as needed, use SAN and NAS in the same cluster at the same time, and control storage with a simple web-based user interface. The N05 includes advanced replication, multi-pathing, and virtually unlimited, controller-less scalability.
 
"The N05 is a direct result of product demand from our partners and customers for an enterprise-class storage solution for under $3,000 per node," said Jeff Ready, CEO and founder of Scale Computing. "By offering an enterprise-class, Generation 3.0 unified, scale-out SAN/NAS to the SMB, we’re opening the door of virtualization (servers and desktops) to first-time SAN buyers and those looking to archive more data, or do both on the same system. It’s a new product, creating an entirely new market in the vast ocean that is storage consumption."
 
Peter Fuller, Scale’s vice president of marketing and business development believes the N05 will displace some of Dell’s EqualLogic PS market, as well as more inexpensive Promise and NexSan arrays that may cost less than the N05, but have far less scalability and fewer features.
 
"For $2,500 per node of enterprise-class, scale-out storage, companies will have to look twice before purchasing any JBOD solution. With the N05, JBOD for the SMB is dead," said Fuller.
 

Appliance Specifications
 
Hardware

• (2) 500GB SATA Drives
• Protocol Support: iSCSI, NFS, CIFS/SAMBA
• 105w Start up, 70w Operating Power
• (2) GigE ports
• Form Factor: 1U Rack-mountable
• Proven HPC file system

Management

• Web (SSL) for management
• Serial console for initial set-up only

Performance/Capacity

• (2) 500GB SATA drives at 5400RPM
• 150 MB/Sec throughput per (3) node clusters
• +50 MB/Sec throughput for each additional node
• N05 Model Capacity: .5 TB Usable (1TB Raw)

By using Scale’s storage solutions, users are able to add storage hardware, known as storage nodes, as necessary without suspending services or migrating data. IT managers are able to build out storage clusters, now starting with just 1.5 terabytes up to the multiple petabyte range on a single file system. As true scale-out technology, ICS enables customers to reduce costs, increase control, and make storage management more convenient. Scale’s Starter Cluster line of products provides for simultaneous SAN and NAS services from a single pool of storage, providing enterprise-class, truly clustered, and highly scalable storage at a fraction of the price of competing solutions.
 
The N05 Starter Cluster is currently available and pricing starts at $7,500.

Advanced Replication

• The replication features for the N05 are the enterprise class features of the existing Scale product line:
• Ability to schedule intervals of replication in advance
• Flexible replication topology (one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many)
• Dynamically use storage space for replication (no need to pre-allocate storage for replicated data)
• Thin provisioning maintained on the target

Flexible Replication Topology
Scale is architected to accommodate a number of replication topologies based on customer preference (one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many). Customers can replicate data from a single location to multiple locations, multiple locations to a single scale cluster or cross-replicate between locations.  
 
Flexible Replication Pool
Scale’s dynamic use of storage for replication prevents customers from having to pre-allocate a block of storage at the outset of purchasing the equipment. Once an initial block is set, it can be changed at any time to grow along with the replication storage needs of the customer.