Expanded Pivot3 Serverless Computing Array

Pivot3, Inc., in storage-centric computing, announced the second-generation Pivot3 Serverless Computing platform with enhancements to performance, reliability and functionality. The Pivot3 Serverless Computing Array is the first and only storage area network (SAN) system that simultaneously hosts server and storage applications on shared x86 hardware called Cloudbanks.

Pivot3 was demonstrating the upgraded Serverless Computing solution at Structure 09, the GigaOm Network event held in San Francisco, Calif., June 25, 2009.

Performance Increase – The expanded Pivot3 Serverless Computing Array delivers 50 percent more performance in terms of bandwidth, controllers and server CPUs. Each array now scales to 48 server cores, 24 gigabits per second of iSCSI bandwidth, and 12 RAID controllers. Performance and capacity are automatically load-balanced across the Serverless Computing Array by the Pivot3 RAIGE (RAID Across Gigabit Ethernet) Operating System Software.

Higher Reliability – With RAID 6e, Pivot3 dramatically increases the reliability of large-scale systems where mechanical hard drive failures can compromise the integrity of stored data. RAID 6e, an enhanced version of the RAID 6 standard, protects data even in the event of three simultaneous disk failures. RAID 6e also gives users time to replace failed drives, so that systems stay active and field maintenance and support costs are minimized.

New NAS Functionality – New NAS functionality allows standard CIFS and NFS file access to any portion of the array capacity by running NAS software, now available from Pivot3, on one or more of the Cloudbank appliances.

“We have been impressed with the rapid pace of innovation from Pivot3,” said Jason Pritchard, integration manager, Choctaw Nation. “We were an early-adopter of Serverless Computing for our industry-leading IP implementation, and these latest Pivot3 improvements in reliability and performance will further reduce support and maintenance costs over time.”

“The words ‘reliability’ and ‘excitement’ don’t often appear in the same sentence,” said Lee Caswell, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Pivot3. “But customers in many vertical markets are looking carefully at how to protect data efficiently and eliminate expensive tiered storage. For high-availability surveillance markets such as combat reconnaissance, border protection, airport security and correctional facility management, RAID 6e ensures that critical data can be reliably protected on disk for the most severe failure conditions.”

"The current environment is encouraging many organizations to consider new approaches in order to balance storage reliability and performance requirements with the realities of constrained budgets,” said Henry Baltazar, storage analyst for The 451 Group. “The emergence of Serverless Computing – from vendors such as Pivot3 – looks like an interesting new development in this regard as organizations across a variety of industries – including surveillance and beyond – are trying to effectively deal with these conflicting challenges."

The new product is available immediately. The end-user price for a 42U-rack Serverless Computing Array with 20 servers and 250 TB of storage is under US$300,000.