High-Performance Storage: Dynamic Network Factory Introduces Scalable SAS-To-SAS And SATA-To-SAS RAID Arrays For High-Performance Storage Applications

Dynamic Network Factory, Inc. (DNF), a leading maker of high-performance network attached storage (NAS), storage area networks (SANs), RAID and iSCSI systems, recently introduced the SASmaster product family, a new line of scalable SAS-to-SAS and SATA-to-SAS RAID arrays that provide advanced data throughput and superior bandwidth to meet the storage demands of the most data-intensive environments. DNF has also announced that it has added 1TB SATA drive support to its Enterprise F12-HA RAID subsystems and at the same time expanded its overall Enterprise RAID product line with additional SAS-to-Fibre Channel arrays.

Now available, the new SASmaster product line features three models including the SASmaster 12sz, the SASmaster 16sz and the SASmaster 16sz-HA (high availability). The SASmaster 12sz supports 12 hot-swappable drives, while the other two models support 16 hot-swappable drives each. In addition, each model supports up to three expansion arrays to attain capacities of up to 64TB.

"With the option to use SAS for both the host and drive interface, SASmaster demonstrates DNF's commitment to supporting customers' ongoing demands for higher capacity and greater performance," said Mo Tahmasebi, CEO of DNF. "By offering our customers more drive flexibility, we are giving them the freedom to use the types of drives that best suit their application and performance needs, along with the ability to implement storage tiering in a single array."

All three SASmaster models can be configured with both SATA and SAS drives in the same chassis, and also support the new 1TB SATA disk drives as well as RAID 6. In addition, the SASmaster 16sz-HA also features redundant controllers to ensure no single point of failure and allow customers to double the performance and bandwidth capacity of their overall solution. The controllers are interconnected and all data paths are redundant to the disks, so that if one controller fails, the second continues operating uninterrupted to maximize uptime for the entire storage system.

The SASmaster arrays are enclosed in 2U or 3U rack-mount chasses and feature redundant power supplies for high availability. Each system offers battery-backed cache ranging from 256MB to 2GB. In addition, all three SASmaster systems offer support for RAID levels 0,1, 5, 6, 10 and 50, and are designed to centrally manage RAID and volume settings for all attached Spod JBODs, supporting global-sparing and RAID set spanning across multiple enclosures.

Available now, the SASmaster product line ranges in price from US$10,000 to $41,000 for a single system, depending upon configuration and storage capacity. Expansion arrays start at US$8,000.

About Dynamic Network Factory
Founded in 1989, Dynamic Network Factory, Inc. (DNF) is a privately held company based in the Silicon Valley (Hayward, Ca.). DNF carries a variety of products, ranging from network attached storage, direct attached storage and IP SANs, to assist companies in meeting their mission-critical storage needs with cost-effective, high performance solutions. DNF started as a U.S. subsidiary of the publicly traded Japanese IT conglomerate, CSK Electronics, in 1989. In 1998, the company refined its strategy and began to focus the hardware group on storage solutions. Within a year, DNF's rapid growth resulted in its emergence as an independent, privately held spin-off. In 2006, DNF completed its acquisition of StoneFly Networks, an iSCSI storage pioneer and developer of complete, turnkey IP SAN solutions. Now a wholly owned subsidiary of DNF Corporation, StoneFly, Inc. ( www.iscsi.com) is headquartered in San Diego.

Since its inception, DNF has designed custom solutions for organizations of all sizes and built products for many major computer manufacturers.

DNF has more than 20,000 customers ranging from consumers and small-to-medium businesses, to government agencies, universities, hospitals, financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies. Key customers include UC Berkeley, MIT, the Federal Aviation Administration, FBI, Lockheed Martin, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Fujitsu, Honda Corporation of America, SBC, BAE Systems, and General Dynamics. For more information, visit www.dnfstorage.com

SOURCE: Dynamic Network Factory