200,000 Shipments of SBB-Based Controller Slots

Demonstrating continuing growth of the SBB ecosystem, The Storage Bridge Bay Working Group (SBB) announced that shipments of SBB-based controller slots have surpassed 200,000. According to shipments tracked by market research and analysis firm IDC, over the last two years SBB member companies have shipped in excess of 100,000 storage systems with 2 SBB-based controller slots per system. Underscoring the growing appeal of the specification, a total of nine SBB member companies are now shipping product, with an additional seven offering SBB-based reference designs or having announced future solutions.

"The growing roster of industry leaders supporting this emerging ecosystem of standardized storage system controller slots is a strong indication that the SBB specification is mature," said Mark Hall, chairman of the SBB Working Group, and senior worldwide product manager at Xyratex. "Our member companies are reaping the benefits of reduced costs, faster time-to-market, added value and differentiation of their external storage solutions targeted at the SMB market."

AIC, Ciprico, Dell, EMC, IBM, iStor, LSI, Newisys Data Storage and Xyratex are all now shipping storage products based on the SBB standardized controller slot or ‘bridge bay’ within a storage enclosure. In addition, AMD, Intel Corporation and Xyratex are offering SBB server module reference designs that drive the simplification of the storage solution engineering and design process.

Digi-Data, Dot-Hill Systems, Emulex Corporation and QSAN Technology have either publicly demonstrated prototypes or have announced plans to introduce future SBB-based products to SMB customers seeking greater value and earlier access to new storage technology.

"The vast proliferation of data is driving the need in the industry to move more intelligence out to the storage arrays," said Greg Schulz, founder, StorageIO Group and author The Green and Virtual Data Center (Auerbach). "This trend is creating a greater opportunity for storage solution providers to offer differentiated solutions to the $12 billion SMB marketplace. Standardization of storage designs with specifications such as SBB becomes essential as increased investment and innovation drive the need for lower development costs and shortened development cycles."

Since the original SBB 1.0 ratification in September 2006, the total membership has grown to 46 members. Promoter Members and members of the Board of Directors of the SBB Working Group include: Dell, EMC, IBM, Intel Corporation, LSI, NetApp, Sun Microsystems and Xyratex. In addition, the SBB Working Group is supported by the following Contributor Members: Accusys, Adaptec, AIC, AMD, AMCC Storage, Aristos Logic, Astute Networks, ATTO Technology, Celestica, Chenbro, Ciprico, Digi-Data, Dot Hill Systems, Emulex Corporation, FCI, Flextronics, Foxconn, Infortrend, Inspur (Beijing), Inventec Enterprise System Corporation (IESC), iStor Networks, Jabil, Lanner, Mellanox Technologies, MiTAC, NEC, Neterion, Newisys Data Storage, Nextronics Engineering (Leanpac Division), PMC-Sierra, Promise Technology, Qsan Technology, Quanta Computer, RASILIENT Systems, Seagate, Tyco Electronics, Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), and Wistron.