Isilon Joins With Chelsio, Force10 and Fujitsu

Isilon Systems announced that Chelsio Communications, Force10 Networks and Fujitsu are among leading technology companies announcing interoperability with Isilon’s new Accelerator-x, which ushers in unmatched performance for the most demanding file-based applications and workflows in the enterprise. Isilon’s Accelerator-x uses Chelsio 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) adapters as its high- speed interconnect to seamlessly integrate with high-performance, 10 GbE switches from Force10 and Fujitsu, enabling enterprise businesses to turbo- charge total network performance with up to 20GBps of aggregate throughput.

"10 Gigabit Ethernet is the network connectivity fabric for the next generation data center, delivering unparalleled performance, low cost of ownership and flexibility," said Ashish Bhargava, Director of Business Development, Isilon Systems. "By working with Chelsio, Force10 and Fujitsu, we have engineered the Accelerator-x to maximize the potential of 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking and enable enterprises to speed the entire data center value chain to achieve new levels of innovation and business agility."

"Enterprise adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet is on the rise as its performance and reliability make it an ideal solution for delivering next- generation network connectivity for the enterprise data center," said Eric Tom, Vice President of Business Development, Force10. "The combined best-of- breed 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology of Force10 switches and Isilon’s new clustered storage systems enable enterprise businesses to accelerate data access and network performance while reducing IT cost and complexity."

"With the mass-market availability of 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters and switches, enterprise data centers can now deploy high bandwidth, high throughput and low latency Ethernet solutions for the most rigorous workflows and applications," said Joel Hagberg, Vice President, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. "By integrating Fujitsu switches with Isilon clustered storage, enterprises can transform the way data is accessed within their network and maximize the value of this critical information."

"Isilon’s approach to 10GbE convergence allows for the lowest total cost of ownership to the end user and allows the data center operator to take advantage of the traditional Ethernet economies of scale as opposed to newly proposed Ethernet based approaches," said Kianoosh Naghshineh, President and CEO of Chelsio. "Chelsio’s Unified Wire products in combination with Isilon’s storage, Force-10’s and Fujitsu’s switches, enable a new level of flexibility that guarantees investment protection for the data center customers."

Priced at a third of the cost of a traditional NAS filer head, the Accelerator-x offers unmatched price performance in the storage industry. The Accelerator-x can be seamlessly added to an existing Isilon cluster in under 15 seconds, eliminating the cost, complexity and risks of downtime associated with scaling performance with traditional NAS and SAN network storage systems. When combined with 10 GbE networking switches for connectivity, Accelerator-x enables enterprise businesses to achieve dramatic improvements in network performance while significantly lowering data center overhead.

Powered by OneFS, Isilon IQ X-Series delivers the industry’s first single file system that unifies and provides instant and ubiquitous access to the rapidly growing stores of file-based data, setting the standard for scale out file storage. OneFS is a unified operating system software layer that powers all of Isilon’s award-winning IQ family of clustered storage systems including the Isilon IQ 1920, 3000, 6000, 9000, 12000, Accelerator-x, and EX 6000, 9000 and 12000. Isilon also provides a robust suite of software applications including SnapshotIQ®, SmartConnect, SmartQuotas, and SyncIQ that leverage OneFS and clustered storage, providing the highest levels of data protection and automated data management.