SGI Brings Out RAID Platform for Big Data and HPC Workloads

Silicon Graphics International Corp. announced the introduction of InfiniteStorage 5600, a high-performance storage platform suited for HPC and big data workloads.

       60-Bay Enclosure:
4U 2.5- and 3.5-Inch Drives

Leveraging modular architecture, the InfiniteStorage 5600 (IS5600) delivers performance per spindle, meaning customers can achieve performance requirements while reducing their total investment in hardware.

Building on the InfiniteStorage 5000-series modular architecture, the new IS5600 controller adds increased performance. The architecture is also flexible, such that customers can tune the systems to their specific performance and capacity requirements. In data-intensive industries such as manufacturing, media, life sciences and earth sciences, such performance and efficiency are requirements that the IS5600 is designed to satisfy.

"SGI customers are constantly pushing the edge of performance requirements for storage arrays," said Bill Mannel, VP of product marketing at SGI. "The flexibility of the IS5600 platform and the choices it offers enable these users to push the limit without breaking their budget."

Storage platforms in today’s IT environments need to reliably house data and have the modular flexibility and performance choices to match application and solutions needs. To enable the maximum flexibility for a range of applications, the IS5600 can intermix multiple drive types and enclosure densities, ranging from 4TB capacity drives to performance SSDs, in a single, scalable system. The result is a storage infrastructure that provides increased density, more bandwidth, and performance efficiency.

The InfiniteStorage 5600, has produced a new SPC-2 result with the highest throughput per spindle – 2.5 times over the nearest published result.

It confirms the performance and cost-efficiency of the platform, and showcases the performance possibilities that the IS5600 unlocks for HPC and big data organizations. The audited, peer-reviewed SPC-2 result demonstrates the highest throughput per spindle by more that 2.5 times over the nearest published result.

IS5600 is available in three enclosure densities including 12, 24 and a maximum 4U 60-drive high-density enclosure. Each enclosure can house dual controllers, or can be configured as an expansion unit to mix and match 2.5" and 3.5" drives in a variety of performance and capacity choices for SSD, 15K SAS, 10K SAS and near-line SAS. With support for Self Encrypting Drives and the T10-PI data integrity standard, the IS5600 is ready for storage challenge.

The InfiniteStorage 5500 will be available in April 2013.