Extreme RAID: How STORM Xtreme Array Delivers True ''No Single Point Of Failure'' Data Availability For Mission-Critical Applications

RAID storage systems have always been regarded as inherently fault tolerant. In fact, most any RAID system available today offers some level of redundancy and data availability. For instance, typical RAID systems today use parity striping or data mirroring across multiple independent disks to withstand disk failures. They offer multiple, redundant fibre channel connections from the RAID controller to the disks and hosts to survive fibre channel connection or adapter failures. They also provide "hot-swappable" components within the system to maximize system uptime. As a result, this level of fault tolerance has become the accepted norm.

However, for enterprise or mission-critical applications like e-commerce sites, customer relationship management, transaction processing, financial reporting and operational applications, these environments need a higher level of data availability. More specifically, they need "No Single Point of Failure" RAID storage.

Historically, the difference between standard RAID systems and "No Single Point of Failure" RAID systems has been quite significant in terms of hardware complexity, management software, configuration and deployment, management and maintenance, and above all, cost. As a result "No Single Point of Failure" RAID storage systems have been unaffordable and too cumbersome to deploy and manage for most organizations. In turn, this has created a large gap in the market – a market demanding the protection and peace-of-mind of "No Single Point of Failure" RAID storage, but without all the cost or complexity.