Dataram has unveiled a new XcelaSAN storage optimisation appliance, which it claims to augment existing storage systems by transparently applying intelligent caching algorithms that serve active block-level data from high speed solid state storage, creating a virtual solid state SAN.
The XcelaSAN connects to a storage network using eight 4Gb/s Fibre Channel ports and can connect to the storage switch fabric or directly to back-end storage. It delivers enterprise-level scalability including hot-swappable, redundant power supplies, ECC, chip kill, internal mirrored flash drives and active-active SAN configurations, with no single point of failure.
The company claims the new appliance to deliver up to 30x performance to existing applications. By accessing under-utilised disk capacity and optimising data performance of existing storage systems, XcelaSAN eliminates the need for additional hardware to increase application performance.
Jason Caulkins, chief technologist at Dataram, said: It is now well understood that the benefit of a solid state infrastructure for compute-intensive environments is higher application performance with less equipment and lower operational costs. The question is no longer ‘How can I benefit from solid state storage?’ but ‘How do I best implement solid state in my existing infrastructure?’ With XcelaSAN, we enable organisations with performance intensive applications to seamlessly add a dynamic, intelligent solid state storage tier to their existing SAN environment.
The XcelaSAN begins shipping during Q4 in the US and in 1H 2010 throughout Europe and Asia. Its pricing starts at $65,000.
