New OEM for BlueArc: SGI

BlueArc Corporation has entered a strategic OEM agreement with SGI to expand the companies’ storage and data management solutions. Under the agreement, SGI will extend its existing suite of storage solutions with BlueArc Mercury powering its new InfiniteStorage NAS 50 and InfiniteStorage NAS 100 platforms.

The partnership enables customers to capitalize on the high performance and scalability of SGI InfiniteStorage NAS solutions, while leveraging BlueArc’s advanced accelerated SiliconFS file system and open architecture to consolidate application storage requirements and enable the highest performance and scalability of any product in its class. The agreement also benefits systems integrators and channel partners by providing a fully supported, seamlessly integrated solution from these two leading technology providers.

"BlueArc’s technical expertise and proven ability in providing high performance, highly scalable solutions in HPC environments, are an excellent complement to SGI’s storage portfolio," said Mike Gustafson, president and CEO, BlueArc. "This partnership will help deepen and accelerate Mercury’s reach in key markets where SGI has strong expertise."

As part of the agreement, the BlueArc Mercury platform will power SGI InfiniteStorage NAS products shipped worldwide.

The agreement will also include:

• BlueArc support for the SGI InfiniteStorage NAS products
• BlueArc and SGI collaboration to provide tighter integration between SGI InfiniteStorage platforms and Mercury in future releases

"BlueArc’s HPC expertise, paired with Mercury’s unique combination of a powerful file system and hardware accelerated platform makes BlueArc an ideal partner for SGI," said Jose Reinoso, vice president for storage products at SGI. "Adding BlueArc’s Mercury platform to our existing suite of solutions enables us to deliver unmatched storage performance and scalability that is critical to our customers."

Mercury is available immediately for pre-order and will begin shipping in December as part of the SGI InfiniteStorage NAS family through SGI and SGI authorized resellers worldwide.