Dot Hill Enters SAS Market With 2530 RAID Array

Dot Hill Systems Corp. launched its 2530 Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) RAID storage solution.

The newest iteration of its high-performance, modular enterprise Series 2000 storage platform, the 2530 marks Dot Hill’s entry into the SAS market. Priced competitively, the 2530 offers both enterprise performance and scalability as well as advanced data protection services.

The 2530 includes two 3 Gb SAS interfaces per controller to internal SAS or SATA-II disk drives with 1 GB of mirrored cache per controller. Featuring a 12-drive 2U form factor, the 2530 supports up to 56 low cost, high capacity SAS and SATA disk drives, offering customers the ability to freely mix drives in a single enclosure or in individual expansion trays for capacity that scales from 1.7 TB base capacity to up to 56 TB. Additionally, the product features a number of data protection services, such as snapshot and volume copy; the 2530 comes standard with 16 snapshots and offers customers the flexibility to add up to 64 snapshots via an optional license. The product also comes with high-availability features such as active-active controllers and MPIO.

The next generation replacement for the SCSI interconnect protocol, SAS is rapidly overtaking SCSI in port shipments of direct-attached storage. Many industry analysts believe that SAS may challenge Fibre Channel as the technology of choice for smaller SANs, with its attractive combination of low cost and high performance. SAS also is considered a scalable and flexible storage technology alternative for self-contained blade server and rack mount server environments, which continue to enjoy broad market adoption.

"While some vendors are taking a tentative approach in bringing SAS RAID products to market, Dot Hill is taking a leadership position, offering a strong SAS RAID solution to meet the emerging and future needs of our OEM customers," said Dana Kammersgard, president and chief executive officer, Dot Hill. Kammersgard added that the 2530 is currently in evaluation/qualification testing by nearly one-third of Dot Hill’s more than 25 OEM and SI partners worldwide.

"The 2530, based on Dot Hill’s proven R/Evolution storage platform, rounds out our product family which supports the entry level to the midrange through Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and now SAS protocols," continued Kammersgard. "To date, Dot Hill has more than 10,000 units built on the R/Evolution architecture in the field."

"Data growth, crowded data centers and power efficiency demands are driving customers to deploy more blade server and rack-mounted server configurations. Such implementations need access to flexible, high-performing, and — most importantly — cost-effective storage solutions. SAS-based external attached storage balances all of these necessities; and, with smaller form factor drives scheduled for later this year, the product benefits are only going to improve," said Mark Peters, analyst with ESG. "The market for SAS external storage offerings is still in its infancy, but Dot Hill’s 2530 offering, based on its innovative and proven R/Evolution storage architecture, should help boost storage OEMs’ entrance into this fast-growing opportunity."

The R/Evolution product line offers superior modular scalability and features resulting in higher return on investment and lower total cost of ownership. The modular, dynamic system offers high availability and a fault-tolerant design, and allows customers the ability to easily customize their storage systems geared to performance or capacity, and/or to meet their specific business requirements.

Customers seeking maximum configuration flexibility and investment protection can benefit via the ability to upgrade or migrate from one Dot Hill RAID solution to another, easily and cost effectively via a data-in-place controller upgrade. For example, customers can move from a Dot Hill Series 2000 entry-level RAID offering to its midrange Series 5000. This unique capability promotes sound financial planning with the re-use of disk drive purchases by exchanging entry-level controllers as needed.

As a member of the Series 2000 line, the 2530 leverages the following advanced technologies, delivering price performance leadership and scalability:

• SimulCache — leverages redundant RAID controllers, thus eliminating the performance degradation associated with conventional cache mirroring. The implementation of a high-speed dedicated PCI-Express bus streamlines write performance resulting in superior overall system responsiveness driving faster application throughput in database-related deployments.
• AssuredSnap — Dot Hill’s snapshot technology for improved data availability and business continuity. AssuredSnap creates a point-in-time virtual copy of data that the system can roll back to, in the event of data loss or corruption. All snapshots are preserved in the event of a roll back; AssuredSnap also features a unique roll forward capability. Additional AssuredSnap features include writeable snapshots for real-time data mining, rapid application development, the preservation of original and written data, and snapshot reset for scripted backups.
• AssuredCopy — Dot Hill’s volume copy technology, which provides the ability to create independent data volume copies to protect against accidental/malicious loss or corruption of data, and/or RAID group or complete volume failure. AssuredCopy also enables non-disruptive use of production data for business analytics or application development and test, mitigating resource contention and performance impact on production volumes.
• EcoStor battery-free alternative for cache back up — an environmentally friendly "green," battery-free alternative that leverages a combination of super capacitors and compact flash technology for non-volatile cache memory. With up to a 10-year life span, the solution eliminates service calls for battery replacement, new battery inventory management, and the issues of battery disposal, as well as the periodic replacement downtime associated with batteries. Additionally, it offers an improved customer experience upon installation or power restore as it does not require lengthy battery charging time. The array operates in high-performance write-back cache mode within minutes of installation, versus hours with batteries.

Evaluation units of the 2530 are now available, and Dot Hill expects general availability of the 2530 in the second quarter of 2008.

Dot Hill Systems Corp.