Sun Microsystems Enhances A5x00 Family of StorEdge Fibre
Channel Disk Arrays For Superior Performance and
Flexibility
June 07, 1999 08:13
New Caching and Extended Connectivity Capabilities Increase Appeal to Global
Enterprise Customers
Benchmark Tests Show Sun StorEdge Array Meets the Most Demanding Performance
Needs
PALO ALTO, Calif., June 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Demonstrating continued commitment to its
industry-leading Fibre Channel product line, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW),
today announced major enhancements to the StorEdge(TM) A5x00 family of storage
systems for mission-critical applications. Leveraging the superior A5x00 architecture,
the new features offer flexible, scalable remote mirroring at a distance of up to ten
kilometers to help ensure business continuance, reliability and disaster recovery.
Additionally, new caching capabilities accelerate I/O performance in write-intensive
applications, such as on-line transaction processing (OLTP) and RAID5.
"Sun's A5x00 architecture currently outperforms the competition in applications like data
warehousing and decision support," said Raj Das, Director of Product Marketing,
Network Storage at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "With today's announcement, existing and
new StorEdge A5x00 family customers gain increased performance and a solid
alternative for securing their assets in mission-critical environments. The addition of
these new features clearly demonstrates Sun's commitment to preserving our
customers' investment in the A5x00 product line."
New Extended Connectivity Offering
Using mirroring techniques, the newly available Long Wave Gigabit Interface Converter
(Long Wave GBIC) module enables remote mirroring at distances of up to ten
kilometers between Sun StorEdge A5x00 Fibre Channel arrays and Sun Enterprise(TM)
servers. This is a major improvement over current short-wave remote mirroring
capabilities which are limited to 500 meters. A hot-pluggable card that fits in existing
Sun StorEdge A5x00 line hubs, interface boards, and host adapters, Long Wave GBIC
enables customers to mirror over long distances for disaster recovery or to install
campus clustering technologies, thus achieving a new level of reliability and availability.
The initial release will support the Sun Enterprise 3x00, 4x00, 5x00, 6x00 and 10000
server families. Priced at $3,500 including installation, the Long Wave GBIC module can
be ordered immediately. Installation by a Sun Service representative is included in the
purchase price.
OLTP Optimized with Fast-Write Cache
Sun StorEdge Fast Write Cache(TM) is a write-acceleration option that boosts overall I/O
of A5x00 Fibre Channel arrays, and significantly increases performance in OLTP, RAID5
and other write intensive applications. For example, Fast Write Cache beta customer
Acuson achieved performance improvements up to twenty-eight times in write-intensive
applications with eight cached file systems.
Sun StorEdge Fast Write Cache allows caching 'on the fly' so that data volumes can be
cached or uncached without disruption to existing applications. Existing and new
customers will gain the flexibility to choose between cached and uncached system
configurations, depending on their specific needs.
Sun StorEdge Fast Write Cache contains battery back-up to protect against data loss
during power cycles. Dual boards eliminate a single point of failure, further enhancing
data availability. The initial release will support the Sun Enterprise 3x00, 4x00, 5x00 and
6x00 server families. Sun StorEdge Fast Write Cache is priced at $15,000 for on the fly
caching software and redundant 32 MB cache. It can be ordered immediately.
Installation and configuration by a Sun Service representative is included at no
additional cost.
A5200 Demonstrates Stunning Performance in Tests
In recent lab tests, StorEdge A5200 Fibre Channel storage arrays, combined with Sun's
Enterprise 10000 server, delivered ground-breaking results currently unmatched in the
industry. The results were achieved even without using Sun's new Fast Write Cache
feature.
Simulating I/O patterns used for OLTP workloads, the StorEdge A5200/Sun Enterprise
10000 configuration generated 102,000 I/Os per second on almost nine terabytes of
data. In a second test, the configuration achieved 3 GB per second I/O performance
reading one MB-sized chunks of data. This test simulated performance benchmarks
used in data warehousing and high-performance computing environments. These
impressive results are more astounding considering the configuration only consumed
88 square feet of floor space.
About Sun StorEdge A5x00 Family of Disk Array Products
The Sun StorEdge A5x00 family of disk array products offers high-performance fibre
channel RAID solutions for enterprise applications. Sun recently announced major
enhancements to the product line with the introduction of the Sun StorEdge A5100 and
A5200 arrays. The StorEdge 5100 delivers increased density with 18.2 GB, 72000-rpm
drives, yielding twice the capacity in the same physical space as the original A5x00. Sun
also increased the density and performance of the Sun StorEdge A5200 array by
introducing new 9.1 GB, 10000-rpm drives in a new 22-drive enclosure. The additional
drives per enclosure, combined with the drive speed increase, yield higher performance
and lower latency.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer(TM)," has
propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., to its position as a leading provider of high quality
hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide Intranets and
expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues, Sun
can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at
sun.com.
NOTE: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, StorEdge, Fast Write Cache, Long Wave
Gigabit Interface Converter, Ultra Enterprise and "The Network Is The Computer" are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc., in the United States
and other countries.
SOURCE Sun Microsystems, Inc.
/CONTACT: Regina Schumann of Sun Microsystems, Inc., 650-786-5677, or
regina.schumann@corp.sun.com; or Jen Woods of Ketchum Thomas, 650-596-2250,
or
jenniferw@thomaspr.com, for Sun Microsystems, Inc./
/Web site: sun.com
(SUNW) |
