Dual-Controller SSD RAID Solution From RAID Inc.

RAID Incorporated announced the availability of the redundant controller version of its Razor 1U Fibre-Channel or SAS-based, 2.5 inch Solid State Drive (SSD) RAID solution.

The Razor SSD solution was released by RAID earlier this year in a single-controller version, and now is available in a dual-controller version for added performance and redundancy. Failover capabilities on the controller level allow for no single point of failure in the entire solution, making it an even better fit for Tier-0 applications such as mission-critical databases and metadata servers for clustered file systems. Solid state technology also makes the Razor SSD the ideal fit for mobile applications where the physical characteristics of standard drives can become a major issue. These include harsh environments where shock, vibration, and altitude can wreak havoc on spinning disks, and solid state drives perform much better.

The ability to utilize all four host ports across both controllers has resulted in very impressive performance increases over the previous generation. A dual-controller 1U, 12-bay Razor solution has been tested to provide over 130,000 IOps and 1.4 GBps. In addition, the Razor SSD performs ten times better than spinning disk for random, small-file reads and writes, and does not require a large number of spindles in order to sustain this performance.

The dual-controller Razor SSD solution comes with RAID’s patent pending StorageWatch service, which is the industry’s only real-time proactive monitoring solution. It monitors the overall condition of the storage system, identifying irregularities with storage arrays, RAID controller, disk drives, power supplies, cooling, switches and fabric, and backup devices. StorageWatch incorporates human intelligence to properly diagnose and resolve issues, ensuring that business operations and data are continuously available.

"Our introduction of the dual-controller version of the Razor SSD into the market provides, for the first time, a truly redundant and high-performing Tier-0 storage solution at a reasonable cost point," stated Tad Gambiza, Vice President of Engineering at RAID Incorporated. "This is the first system that allows users to investigate the capabilities of SSD technology in a standalone solution that does not require integration into a larger SAN. It can easily be implemented within existing storage infrastructure, or can be included as a component of a turnkey RAID Inc. storage solution, along with the Xanadu series (for Tier-1 & Tier-2 storage), servers, interconnects, and file systems."

The Razor is currently available in single and dual-controller models, scalable up to 60 single-level cell NAND flash SSD with 32GB or 64GB capacities. 128GB SSD drives are scheduled for release and qualification in Q4.