Top Of The News - Storage:

StoneFly And Alacritech Announce Interoperability In IP SANs

StoneFly Networks, an innovator of simple, intelligent, affordable IP SAN appliances, and Alacritech, an innovator of network accelerator solutions that enable fast and efficient servers and storage systems, have announced that StoneFly's new Storage Concentrators, which combine the functionality of an iSCSI-based storage router, bridge and provisioning manager, seamlessly interoperate with Alacritech's full line of TCP/IP offload accelerators. Running in conjunction, the products provide mid-sized enterprises with an optimized, yet simple and cost effective method for centrally managing IP SAN environments.

By adding block-level storage intelligence to the IP networking core, StoneFly's Storage Concentrators are the first IP SAN appliances to market that install in minutes to enable companies to instantly turn an IP network into a storage network. Alacritech is the pioneer of TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) technology, and its accelerators are well known as providing the industry's highest performance in servers and iSCSI (Internet SCSI) storage devices. In driving broad IP SAN interoperability through its IP SAN Partner Program, StoneFly has certified Alacritech accelerators as fully compatible. Together, the cost effective, easy-to-deploy products lower the overall total cost of ownership (TCO) for mid-sized storage networks by eliminating server and network bottlenecks and ensuring efficient storage utilization through storage consolidation.

"The explosive growth in data and storage combined with the ratification of the iSCSI standard enables StoneFly to target an emerging multi-billion dollar IP SAN market," said Jeffrey Schnabel, vice president of marketing, StoneFly Networks Inc. "StoneFly's storage provisioning appliances provide users with easy-to-manage centralized pools of storage for more efficient use of storage assets. By consolidating SAN block data using a common IP Storage network infrastructure, StoneFly is ensuring interoperability while breaking price/performance barriers thereby providing the first highly affordable, managed storage for companies and departments."

"With the current economic climate, companies are looking to increase the life of their existing technology by cost-effectively improving the performance in servers, networks and applications," said Barry Haaser, vice president of marketing, Alacritech Inc. "By deploying Alacritech's server accelerators, customers can easily and efficiently access IP storage through the Stonefly Storage Concentrator while speeding critical network applications such as backup."

About StoneFly Storage Concentrators

StoneFly's Storage Concentrators are ideally suited for small- and mid-tier enterprises, and workgroups and departments within larger enterprises. By using the emerging iSCSI standard, TCP/IP and Gigabit Ethernet, StoneFly's new Storage Concentrators add intelligent block-level logical volume management to existing IP networks to pool existing and new storage assets, thus providing more efficient utilization, streamlined management, rapid deployment and reconfiguration of storage, and reduced SAN-based backup and restore times. Storage Concentrators feature an easy-to-use HTML-based GUI to allow administrators to easily manage storage operations, including controlling distributed Storage Concentrators, centrally and securely from anywhere on the Internet.

About Alacritech Acceleration Technology

Alacritech's accelerator product line offers small- and medium-sized businesses choices at a number of interface options. Customers can use the Alacritech 100x4 Quad-port Server Accelerator for Fast Ethernet environments. Those with Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure can choose between Alacritech's copper and fiber Gigabit accelerators for accelerating both file- and block-level data. Alacritech's accelerators are the only Integrated Storage Network Interface Cards (IS-NICs) to provide hardware acceleration for both IP storage and standard Ethernet traffic simultaneously.

Availability

StoneFly's i1000, i1500 and i1500FS Storage Concentrators are available now for $7,995, $9,995 and $12,995 respectively through the company's channel distribution partners and select resellers. Alacritech's complete line of Gigabit Ethernet and Fast Ethernet accelerator products are available now by accessing the company's Website www.alacritech.com or contacting the company's resellers.

About StoneFly Networks Inc

StoneFly Networks Inc is based in San Diego, California and was founded in April 2000 to develop simple, intelligent, affordable IP SAN appliances that add intelligent storage management to IP networks transforming them into IP storage area networks (SANs). The company's complete line of Storage Concentrators combine the functionality of an iSCSI-based storage router, bridge and provisioning manager to provide an end-to-end storage provisioning solution that reduces the cost and complexity of managing storage assets. Storage Concentrators are based on StoneFly's patent-pending StoneFusion storage networking architecture to consolidate and optimize data storage to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase return on investment (ROI). StoneFly Networks is a member of the Storage Networking Association (SNIA) and the founding member of the IP Storage Institute (IPSI). For more information, please visit the company's Website at www.stonefly.com.

Contact: Julee Vecchio of StoneFly Networks Inc, 858-678-2450, jvecchio@stonefly.com.