Dot Hill Updated RAID Storage Architecture

Dot Hill Systems Corp. unveiled its next gen RAID storage architecture.

The ninth-generation storage controller platform will be introduced across its entry level and midrange portfolio, with product-specific announcements to come in the months ahead.

“Dot Hill is committed to meeting our customers’ needs through continuous innovation and technology leadership in our target markets,” said Andy Davis, SVP of engineering, Dot Hill. “The new high-bandwidth products based on this platform are designed to extend our offerings for entry and midrange data centers, cloud service providers, and targeted vertical markets including media & entertainment, oil and gas, telecommunications, big data analytics and digital image archiving. We believe these first-to-market solutions further Dot Hill’s position as a key provider of high performance storage that delivers better utilization and better performance without extensive IT resources or training.”

Features and innovations:

• Converged Network Interface

• 16Gb FC, 10GbE iSCSI, and 12Gb SAS connectivity

• ASIC-based RAID Companion Processor

• Forward and backward meta data compatibility

• Full Disk Encryption (FDE) support

• SSD drive support

• Full complement of Data Management Software

Ninth Generation Architecture
“We’ve responded aggressively to customer demand for higher bandwidth storage network solutions with greater flexibility,” said Ken Day, CTO, Dot Hill. “Through a major engineering initiative, we’ve designed our ninth-generation architecture, code named ‘Gallium,’ to provide the fastest FC, iSCSI and SAS connectivity available in the industry with sustained throughput performance ranging from 4GB/s to 12GB/s depending on model and configuration. This architecture delivers unparalleled flexibility, allowing organizations to instantly convert their storage from 16Gb FC to 10Gb iSCSI, vice versa, or to use a combination of both. This flexibility protects IT investments by providing backward-compatibility with existing 1GbE iSCSI, and 4Gb and 8Gb FC devices, while ensuring organizations have a path to adapt their storage to meet changing business needs. And, like all of our prior generations, these products will be meta data compatible with our installed base. No forklift upgrade is required.”

SoC RAID Companion Processor
An aspect of the performance gains realized from this platform is the RAID Companion Processor, implemented as a system-on-a-chip, into this architecture. Previously, the RCP was implemented with field-programmable gate array technology; the ASIC implementation provides an advantage in manufacturing costs and allows the company to deliver high performance storage systems at competitive prices.

“Fujitsu has been a development partner with Dot Hill for the ASIC technology that is incorporated in this new platform,” said Steve Della Rocchetta, VP, semiconductor manufacturing services, Fujitsu Semiconductor America. “Our ASIC technology was able to maximize the performance of the advanced storage architecture. Dot Hill customers will benefit from industry leading storage systems to solve their business problems.”

Configuration Flexibility
QLogic – Leveraging the FlexSuite dual-personality adapter technology, a storage array architecture supporting midrange solutions with the flexibility to run on 16Gb Gen 5 FC, 8Gb FC, 4Gb FC, 10GbE iSCSI and 1GbE iSCSI networks using the same hardware.

“QLogic’s FlexSuite dual-personality technology provides leading storage array vendors such as Dot Hill with the ability to deliver the most flexible, high bandwidth storage solutions in the industry,” said Amit Vashi, VP of products, technology and planning, Qlogic Corp. “QLogic’s FlexSuite technology reduces complexity and future-proofs SAN investments by eliminating the need to ‘rip and replace’ existing hardware when transitioning to a new infrastructure.”

LSI – Incorporating SAS controller technology from LSI, the platform also serves as the foundation for high performance direct attached solutions with eight ports of 12Gb SAS connectivity. Increasingly, applications including cloud storage services, big data, and HPC are utilizing high bandwidth SAS interfaces as a solution for storage connectivity.

“LSI’s 12Gb SAS solutions accelerate storage performance to meet the demands of next-generation enterprise datacenters running web and cloud services,” said Kelly Bryant, VP marketing, storage components division, LSI Corporation. “The combination of Dot Hill’s new architecture and LSI’s high-performance 12Gb SAS technology allows organizations to reach the true potential of their IT investment when running I/O-intensive applications in virtualized environments.”

Security Through Full Disk Encryption
The platform includes support for HGST and Seagate Full Disk Encryption (FDE). Self-encrypting drives encrypt every write operation and decrypt every read operation without user intervention. With drive-level protection of data, FDE drives remain protected even if they are stolen, taken out of service, or repurposed.

“Dot Hill’s ninth-generation storage architecture is built on years of solid engineering and provides an excellent platform to fully showcase Seagate HDD and SSD innovation,” said Darwin Kauffman, Seagate Technology plc‘s VP of SSDs. “With seamless integration of Seagate FDE and SSD drives, Dot Hill’s new architecture provides organizations with improved levels of security, as well as the reliability and performance that Dot Hill customers expect.”

“More than ever, organizations in every market sector crave more capacity, more bandwidth and greater flexibility,“said Brendan Collins, VP of product marketing, HGST.”Dot Hill’s latest architecture delivers on all fronts, providing the foundation for a range of storage solutions that fully exploit the robust capabilities of our Ultrastar 15K, 10K and 7,200rpm enterprise drive portfolio.”

Flexibility
“Dot Hill is making storage more versatile, flexible and responsive through ongoing innovation breakthroughs,” said Brian Garrett, VP, ESG Labs. “By building on that innovation with this new architecture, Dot Hill will spawn products for the highest-bandwidth SAS, iSCSI and FC storage networks. With the ability to choose 16Gb FC, 10GbE iSCSI or a combination of both, all from the same hardware, organizations will appreciate the unprecedented flexibility and versatility of Dot Hill converged interface storage systems.”

This platform will enable storage systems to help customers in general purpose markets and specific vertical markets solve their storage problems and improve business competitiveness. The technology that the company has developed enables storage products utilizing a common architecture that serve customers across price bands 2 through 6 with a scalable family of systems. The first products will be announced this year for both OEM and Dot Hill branded channel customers. Privately branded configurations for one of our large OEM’s are currently shipping worldwide. Compatible with existing AssuredSAN products, the products enable update-in-place functionality, eliminating the need to replace an entire storage array. Existing products that utilize the company’s data management software, RAIDar, and RealStorwill also be compatible to an upgrade experience.

With a swap of a transceiver module IT administrators can configure their storage in the field to 16Gb FC or 10GbE iSCSI. The converged interface includes a four-port controller that can be configured with four 16Gb FC ports, four 10GbE iSCSI ports, or a combination of both FC and iSCSI ports.

Aligns to Client Priorities
Like previous generation products, this will deliver 99.999% data availability, assuring organizations of round-the-clock access to data. Designed with more powerful processor than its predecessor, the platform provides accelerated performance from 4GB/s to 12Gb/s for sequential read workloads, making it the architectures for vertical markets such as oil and gas, telecommunications, media and entertainment, big data analytics and digital image archiving. Gallium-based products will meet the same rugged design specifications, such as NEBS and MIL-STD-810F compliance, which customers in telecommunications and government markets expect from Dot Hill.

The technology platform will support all of the company’s software technologies including RealStor real-time tiering software, and data management software comprised of AssuredSnap for point-in-time snapshots, AssuredCopy for creating volume copies and AssuredRemote for array-based remote replication. Consistent with the previous AssuredSAN architecture, flash based SSD drives will continue to be supported across the product line.

Privately branded configurations for one of our large OEM’s are currently shipping worldwide, and are sampling at other OEM customers. Branded products will be available to through the IT distribution channel in the fourth quarter.