Rorke Data Launches IB-SAS SAN Appliance

Rorke Data Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell Microproducts, announced the general availability of its new Galaxy Aurora IB all-in-one SAN appliance. With an MSRP starting at less than two dollars per gigabyte of storage, the Galaxy Aurora IB features high performance capability of over 1,700 MB per second, as well as an integrated SAN file system, making it the highest performing, lowest cost per gigabyte storage solution available for the 4K or multi-stream 2K/HD post-production marketplace.

Digital technology is reshaping the motion picture industry. Digital image capture, visual effects, mastering, and final color grading are rapidly replacing legacy analog processes and creating a next generation post facility. Currently, storage solution providers in the 2K/4K film production market are forced to rely on multiple striped hardware RAID controllers and complex multi-connect Fibre Channel topologies that include switches, multiple cables and separate servers to manage the SAN file system application. These factors aggregate into a complex solution with a corresponding high cost per gigabyte despite the utilization of non-enterprise-class SATA drives.

According to Joe Swanson, Rorke Data’s president, "The Galaxy Aurora IB is uniquely suited to supporting these new digital processes. Galaxy Aurora IB is our highest performance product, yet delivers breakthrough low cost of ownership with high performing enterprise-class Seagate SAS drives in a simple, single connect InfiniBand network topology. Although Rorke Data positions this product to address the demanding needs of 2K and 4K film applications, the applications for this performance at this price point are far reaching in the storage industry."

The InfiniBand network approach provides a greatly simplified solution when compared to Fibre Channel — it is easier to use and delivers data at the speed required for 4K film and other high performance computing applications, as well as the SAN MetaData all over a single cable.

"Rorke Data’s long history and deep understanding of the media market make them a perfect partner for StreamScale and our patent pending, breakthrough RAID software," commented Michael H. Anderson, president of StreamScale, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance storage solutions for the digital media market. "The Galaxy Aurora IB combines hardware/software solution sets from both companies, setting a new standard in price and performance for digital media, and is only the first of several planned products."
The Galaxy Aurora IB will introduce new levels of speed, simplicity and cost savings to the post production industry, offering superior application performance and connectivity to the professional content creator’s desktop application environment."

"Rorke Data has approached the market with a blend of high-capacity and cost-optimized data storage solutions targeting professional film and HD post production video industries," said Ian Williams, executive director Nearline Storage, Seagate Technology LLC. "By utilizing Seagate’s Enterprise SAS storage family, including our 1TB Nearline SAS product and our Cheetah HDD, Rorke Data will be delivering a high performance, high reliability storage solution that takes advantage of native SAS benefits including superior error handling and reporting with the highest enterprise drive reliability in the industry. And because of the unique design of Seagate HDD products, the Galaxy Aurora IB delivers an even higher level of performance for 4K film applications when utilizing the optional Seagate 15,000 RPM SAS drives."