Looking for lots of high-performance storage and unlimited data access and minimal user intervention? How about up to 3 GB/sec and 560 TB in a single storage array, with the ability to scale and manage data with less hardware and software than a standard storage area network (SAN) requires?
For around $80,000, DataDirect Networks offers such a system, designed for high-definition projects. The new S2A9550 features automated file protection, so that the data stored is the data an application receives. The array checks data through every step or component through the system. If an error is found, the software automatically corrects it without reducing system performance. The system can be set to notify the administrator when automated data protection is activated.
The S2A9550 platform-now in use by Ascent Media, Pacific Title, Technicolor and Thomson-is based on DataDirect's Silicon Storage Appliance (S2A) technology, which leverages a “parallel, non-blocking architecture” that adheres to the adage that 11 people working in parallel can get more work done than one or two people working in serial.
The S2A processes data in a parallel process across 11 Data Mover ASICs, with a separate command path and one housekeeping CPU. These ASICs working together can process much more data faster than generic SAN RAID controllers that use one CPU for command and data-path RAID and one additional CPU for housekeeping.
The company said its S2A delivers real-time 3GB/sec operation by intelligently managing and masking disk latencies away from the application. This results in sustained performance from disk media that is three to five times faster than a standard SAN RAID system. In addition, the S2A provides equal read and write performance. In general, most SAN RAID systems have dramatically slower write performance than read performance.