Dot Hill Launches 12Gb SAS Arrays (48TB at $40,265)

Dot Hill Systems Corp. announced its AssuredSAN 4004 storage models, based on the company’s ninth-generation RAID architecture.

These products offer data security, fast throughput and substantial business benefits for markets that demand high-bandwidth performance, such as cloud service providers, media and entertainment, oil & gas, telecommunications, big data analytics and digital image archiving.

Host interface options include 12Gb SAS, 16Gb FC, 1GbE and 10GbE iSCSI and the only hybrid 16Gb Gen 5 FC/10Gb iSCSI converged interface.

“Reliability and performance are critical factors for our customers across the range of markets that we serve,” said Dana Kammersgard, president and CEO, Dot Hill. “These new products build on our field-proven HA and deliver more performance in this price category to help businesses improve application productivity and business competitiveness with faster workload response times. In addition, with converged network connectivity our customers have more options for consolidating and adapting FC and iSCSI SAN architectures within their data centers with one storage investment.”

With an installed base exceeding 600,000 systems, Dot Hill has demonstrated 99.999% availability with real-world field data, helping to assure organizations of round-the-clock access to data. The AssuredSAN 4004 offers partners an advantage as the industry transitions to 16Gb FC and 12Gb SAS interfaces. Multiple OEM customers are either already shipping or are in late stage evaluations.

“Dot Hill is committed to developing high-functioning, seriously smart storage solutions, offered at tremendously competitive price points,” said Jim Jonez, senior director of marketing, Dot Hill. “Our early-to-market AssuredSAN 4004 products are engineered to deliver superior performance, and offer a leg up to our customers when it comes to seamless integration, reliability and stellar service.”

The AssuredSAN 4004 Series is available in configurations for SSD, 2.5-inch HDD and 3.5-inch HDD, including versatile 4824 and 4834 converged interface models. Each AssuredSAN converged interface storage array includes two four-port controllers and can be configured in the field with eight 16Gb FC ports, eight 10GbE iSCSI ports, or a combination of four 16Gb FC and four 10GbE iSCSI ports. IT managers often use FC for the storage network within the data center, and iSCSI for replication and other data management services outside of the data center.

These storage arrays are backward-compatible with 8Gb/4Gb FC and 1GbE iSCSI networking solutions such as switches and HBAs. 4524 and 4534 12Gb SAS models are backward-compatible with 6Gb SAS investments. All 4004 models are meta-data compatible with previous generation AssuredSAN arrays, so that customers can accomplish data-in-place migration by upgrading to 4004 generation controllers.

Performance, Data Availability and Compatibility
All AssuredSAN 4004 solutions are built on the company’s ninth-generation RAID stack, which delivers up to 100,000 IO/s from disk, sustained sequential read performance of up to 6,400MB/s and writes of up to 5,300MB/s.

The RAID Companion Processor (RCP) allows 4004 solutions to deliver performance gains at aggressive price points.

AssuredSAN 4004 solutions also integrate all the performance tuning and optimizations of the previous-generation AssuredSAN 4000 models, which includes streaming performance optimization to handle randomized, sequential workloads. Latest firmware utilizes a proprietary Adaptive Read-ahead Algorithm that analyzes workloads and fine tunes options to optimize the performance of specific kinds of demanding workloads, delivering better response times and meeting IT SLAs.

“Our reseller partners appreciate the price/performance value proposition that Dot Hill continues to deliver. The 4004 models will enable our partners to win new customers in key vertical markets like media and entertainment, where high definition and 3D workflows require high bandwidth storage solutions. This market is ready for 16Gb FC and 12Gb SAS solutions,” stated Brad Painter, VP of channel sales, Dot Hill.

“Aside from providing superior streaming performance for bandwidth-intensive applications, the new AssuredSAN 4004 Series storage solutions offer unprecedented flexibility,” said Jon Guess, president, ALT Systems Inc. “The versatile converged interface of these solutions allows organizations to instantly convert their storage in the field from 16Gb FC to 10Gb iSCSI, vice versa, or a combination of both. This extremely attractive feature maximizes our customers’ options and allows organizations to future-proof their IT investments.”

Support for Complement of Data Management Software and SSDs
AssuredSAN 4004 arrays support the full complement of Dot Hill’s data management services including the company’s RAIDar management interface, and DR software comprised of AssuredSnap for point-in-time snapshots, AssuredCopy for creating volume copies and AssuredRemote for array-based remote replication. Support for storage software platforms such as vSphere, Hyper-V, Xenserver and Veeam Backup & Replication is included. Consistent with previous AssuredSAN products, flash-based SSD drives are supported across the Dot Hill product line.

Security through Full Disk Encryption
The Dot Hill platform also includes support for HGST and Seagate Full Disk Encryption (FDE). Self-encrypting drives encrypt every write operation and decrypt every read operation without user intervention. With drive-level protection of data, FDE drives remain protected even if they are stolen, taken out of service, or repurposed. FDE support is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2014.

Products will begin shipping in volume worldwide to authorized channel partners in November. Select OEMs are shipping.

The suggested list price for a 48TB AssuredSAN 4834 16Gb FC/10Gb iSCSI model is $39,869. A similar dual controller configuration with eight ports of 12Gb SAS is $40,265 suggested list price.