… OEMed to SGI as InfiniteStorage 5600

Silicon Graphics International Corp. announced the InfiniteStorage 5600 (IS5600), a next-generation high-performance storage platform suited for HPC and big data workloads.

Leveraging field-proven modular architecture, it delivers leading performance per spindle, meaning customers can achieve extreme performance requirements while reducing their total investment in hardware. ‘Throughput per spindle’ is defined by SGI as SPC-2 MBPS divided by the number of storage devices in the SPC-2 configuration

Building on the SGI InfiniteStorage 5000-series modular architecture, the IS5600 controller adds increased performance. The architecture is also flexible, such that customers can tune the systems to their specific performance and capacity requirements. In data-intensive industries such as manufacturing, media, life sciences and earth sciences, such performance and efficiency are key requirements that the IS5600 is designed to satisfy.

"SGI customers are constantly pushing the edge of performance requirements for storage arrays," said Bill Mannel, VP of product marketing at SGI. "The flexibility of the IS5600 platform and the choices it offers enable these users to push the limit without breaking their budget."

Storage platforms in today’s IT environments need to reliably house data and have the flexibility and performance choices to match application and solutions needs. To enable the flexibility for a range of applications, the IS5600 can intermix multiple drive types and enclosure densities, ranging from 4TB high capacity drives to performance SSDs, in a single, scalable system. The result is a storage infrastructure that provides increased density, more bandwidth and  performance efficiency.

The IS5600 has produced a new SPC-2 Result with the highest throughput per spindle – 2.5 times over the nearest competitive published result [SGI nearest competitive published result and comparisons.] This result confirms the performance and cost-efficiency of the new platform, and showcases the performance possibilities that the IS5600 unlocks for HPC and big data organizations.

         Results with SPC ‘Accepted’ status
as of January 2011 and priced under $500,000
           (Date current as of March 1, 2013)

 *SPC-2 MBPS/Spindle as computed by NetApp = (SPC-2 MBPS / # of spindles in TSP)

IS5600 is available in three enclosure densities including 12, 24 and a maximum 4U 60-drive high-density enclosure. Each enclosure can house dual controllers, or can be configured as an expansion unit to mix and match 2.5" and 3.5" drives in a variety of performance and capacity choices for SSD, 15K SAS, 10K SAS and near-line SAS. With support for Self Encrypting Drives and the T10-PI data integrity standard, the IS5600 is ready for the storage challenge.

The IS5600 will be available in April 2013.