3PAR announced that the new 3PAR InServ F400 Storage Server has become the fastest single-system midrange storage array as measured by audited, peer-reviewed SPC-1 Results submitted to the Storage Performance Council (SPC). The InServ F400 storage array also reported one of the best price-to-performance ratios of any array with submitted SPC-1 Results, demonstrating that the F-Class delivers the highest-performing midrange Fibre Channel array for the lowest total cost.

The recently-announced 3PAR InServ F400 - the only quad-controller midrange array architecture available today - achieved a total of 93,050.06 SPC-1 IOPS, an 8.85-millisecond average response time, a total ASU capacity of 27,046.695 gigabytes, and a cost of only $5.89/SPC-1 IOPS.

The SPC-1 Result reported by 3PAR demonstrate the power of the Mesh-Active, quad-controller InServ F-Class, which was designed to overcome the technical limitations of traditional midrange arrays. The F-Class offers features and benefits typically only associated with high-end arrays but at a price that targets the midrange storage market.

3PAR's result of 93,050.06 SPC-1 IOPS was achieved with 96% capacity utilization and without complex configuration or performance tuning. According to results submitted to the SPC, this makes the InServ F400 the only midrange array capable of delivering the InServ F-Class' high level of performance right out of the box, without performance-enhancing techniques such as 'short stroking,' a common practice whereby vendors leave physical capacity space unaccessed in order to speed disk performance.

"This latest round of excellent SPC-1 Results proves the that Mesh-Active 3PAR architecture delivers industry-leading levels of performance across both high-end and midrange Fibre Channel arrays," said Brian Garrett, Technical Director of Enterprise Strategy Group Lab. "The advanced features of the 3PAR InServ F400 eliminate the performance and scalability compromises that typically accompany midrange storage. This is particularly crucial in this economy, where organizations are pressed to do more with less and are looking for low-cost, high-performance alternatives."

The F400 scales up to four clustered, Mesh-Active controller nodes powered by the 3PAR Gen3 ASIC with Thin Built In. Unlike legacy 'active-active' midrange controller architectures - where each volume is active on only a single controller - 3PAR's Mesh-Active architecture allows each volume to be active on every mesh controller in the array, thereby automatically delivering more robust, load-balanced performance and greater headroom. The Gen3 ASIC also allows data and metadata to be processed independently in different processor/memory subsystems within the controllers to deliver high performance even with mixed workloads. Without this mixed workload support, in order to maintain performance integrity it is necessary to deploy a separate midrange array for each workload, a limitation that encourages legacy array sprawl.

"The new F-Class - with its Mesh-Active, quad-controller architecture - delivers an efficient and simple midrange storage system that scales not only in capacity but also in performance and connectivity," said David Scott, 3PAR President and Chief Executive Officer. "InServ F-Class arrays were designed to eliminate the scalability, efficiency, and management sacrifices typical with traditional midrange systems, and this SPC-1 Result proves that we have been able to do this while delivering performance and price-performance leadership."


For more information on the SPC-1 Result for the 3PAR InServ F400