Sans Digital AccuRAID AR316I and AR316IR

Sans Digital is introducing its 4-channel single controller (upgradable) and 8-channel redundant controller iSCSI 3U 16-bay solutions.

The AccuRAID AR316I and AR316IR offers up to 900MB/s or 200K IOPS read and write performances for high workload computers, data centers, and virtualization environments such as VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix. Both AR316I and AR316IR utilize cable-less backplanes to provide a perfect fit between their components to ensure good signal paths and resistance to signal degradation or interference. The modularized design with redundant power supplies and cooling fans also helps to minimize system downtime.

AR316I’s design allows customers to start with a single controller offering Quad GbE iSCSI ports and upgrade to active-active redundant controller at a later time. The AR316I and AR316IR support both SAS and SATA hard drives and are capable of expanding their capacity by adding up to 3 more JBOD expansion units (AS316XI: 3U 16-Bay SAS), offering up to a total of 128TB raw capacity in a single setup. AccuRAID AR316I and AR316IR provide hardware RAID protection against potential hard drives failures. Each controller provides four channels of Gigabit Ethernet (802.3ad) with LACP support, offering aggregated bandwidth to provide high throughput performance. Both models also include the Snapshot feature without the need for additional software. Windows Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS), Windows MPIO and SCSI-3 Persistent Target for clustering OS applications are also supported. Both the AR316I and AR316IR offer a peace of mind due to their high quality constructions and redundancy features (dual controllers, power supplies, and cooling fans).

iSCSI SAN devices are fast, reliable and economical in comparison to Fibre Channel SAN products that require more expensive Fibre Channel switches and HBAs. Utilizing the Ethernet topology, mid-size businesses or enterprises benefit more from IP SAN (Storage Area Network) that offers high speed block-level data transfer and flexible data storage integration without the need to pay a premium. The AR316I series could also be used in the case of VMware virtualization for its centralized or clustering setup.

"Priced at $4995 and $7995, the AccuRAID AR316I and AR316IR provide more features than other iSCSI products in the market today," said Grandy Chen, President of Sans Digital. "Customers could now enjoy the performance benefits and versatility of iSCSI with RAID protection, plus the ability to upgrade from single controller to dual controllers with expansion capability."