Features - Storage Innovations:

INFORTREND DEBUTS FIRST iSCSI TO SATA-II EXTERNAL RAID SYSTEM

Infortrend unveiled the industry's first iSCSI to SATA-II external RAID subsystem, as an addition to the EonStor line of RAID storage. The new subsystem is compliant with iSCSI standards, offers low-cost connectivity, and supports SATA-II disks with Native Command Queuing at up to 3.0Gbps providing for a future-proof investment. The EonStor iSCSI system delivers unparalleled storage flexibility, management, and configuration simplicity, while ensuring maximum security and protection for business-critical data.

The EonStor A12E-G2121 combines sophisticated RAID technology from Infortrend with the flexibility of iSCSI to provide cost-effective storage that is easily integrated into today's ubiquitous Ethernet networks. The iSCSI protocol encapsulates SCSI data blocks and carries them over normal Ethernet infrastructures. The EonStor A12E comes with two 1-Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports that connect into standard Gigabit Ethernet networks or directly to application hosts.

The EonStor A12E storage array is ideal for building a shared storage pool for disk-to-disk volume distribution, data backup, storage consolidation and replication among networked servers. The EonStor A12E subsystem incorporates the advantages of the iSCSI protocol in terms of block-based performance and lower training and maintenance costs, without the complexity and high component cost of dedicated storage networking technologies.

"The comprehensive portfolio of RAID storage from Infortrend provides a compelling product offering," said Bernd Widmaier, sales director for Starline Computer GmbH. "We believe products like the EonStor subsystems and enclosures bring an attractive mix of performance, flexibility and capacity to the market."

"Small- and medium-sized businesses must balance the need for protecting and sharing critical information against purchasing storage solutions that are easy to maintain," commented Simon Broadbent, marketing manager for Infortrend Europe. "Our new EonStor A12E subsystem offers the connectivity of iSCSI while reducing the Total Cost of Ownership of a typical SAN."

EonStor A12E-G2121 Feature Highlights

• Two GbE ports.

• Compliant with IETF iSCSI standard (RFC 3720).

• Features CHAP internet authentication security.

• Support for Jumbo Frames.

• Twelve 3.0Gbps SATA-II drive channels with Native Command Queuing, backward compatible with SATA-I.

• Twelve hot-swappable drive trays for SATA-I or SATA-II disk drives.

• 512MB preinstalled DDR RAM DIMM module; supports up to 1GB DIMM.

• Three single-fan, dual-speed, hot-swappable cooling modules.

• Enhanced chassis design includes metal ribbing to increase strength and reduce vibration resonance.

Each controller in the EonStor product line offers up to 1GB cache memory; IBM PowerPC processor with both level one and 512KB of level two internal cache; one Ethernet LAN port; two RS232 ports for out-of-band management; and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) support. For network-wide RAID management, the company provides RAIDWatch, a Java-based GUI manager that offers centralized issue notification and enables administration of all RAID arrays from a single browser screen.

About Infortrend

Focused on RAID storage technology since its founding in 1992, Infortrend designs, manufactures and markets cross-platform, high performance RAID storage solutions. The company specializes in firmware, driver, ASIC design and development of RAID controllers and subsystems that are storage area network (SAN) ready, and support iSCSI, Fibre Channel, SCSI and SATA interfaces. Designed to be flexible, cost-effective and feature-rich, Infortrend products are available through a worldwide network of OEMs, distributors, and storage integrators for high availability storage applications. Infortrend is on the Web at www.infortrend.com.