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New Class of Capacity-Oriented
Hybrid Fibre Channel Disk Drive Changing the
Economics of SANs
July 26 , 2004. San Francisco,
CA. -- The Fibre Channel Industry Association
(FCIA) today announced that it is endorsing
a new class of hybrid disk drives conceived
by HP, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and
Seagate Technology. These hybrid drives combine
a Fibre Channel interface with a low-cost-per-gigabyte,
high-capacity disk drive mechanism to enable
a new class of storage devices costing significantly
less per gigabyte than mission-critical Fibre
Channel drives.
Built specifically for Fibre Channel
systems, these hybrid drives, when combined
with high-performance Fibre Channel drives inside
the same enclosure, allow customers the flexibility
to segment data between lower cost-per-gigabyte,
high-capacity drives and high-performance drives
within a single storage system. Examples of
applications range from reference data (e.g.
archived e-mail) to mission-critical data (e.g.
financial transactions). By combining higher
capacity, lower cost disk drive mechanisms with
a Fibre Channel interface, this industry-first
disk drive addresses the growing need for businesses
to cost-effectively store less critical or infrequently
accessed information in a more economical fashion.
“The FCIA applauds HP, Hitachi and Seagate
for applying field-proven, reliable FC interface
technology to disk drives that are used for
bulk storage applications. This new class of
disk drives will lower cost while maintaining
all the advantages of FC interface technology.
HP is demonstrating thought leadership by quickly
addressing an emerging market need. ”,
said Werner Glinka, Chairman of the Fibre Channel
Industry Association Marketing Working Group.
In April, HP announced it would be the first
systems vendor to offer a 250-gigabyte low cost
Fibre Channel drive which the company called
a Fibre Attached Technology Adapted disk drive.
HP will offer the drives within its HP StorageWorks
Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) family of disk
storage arrays. HP expects to begin shipping
products in July 2004. Other OEMs are expected
to provide low cost-per-gigabyte Fibre Channel
hybrid drive solutions later this year, early
2005l
“Standards-based innovations from HP
help customers keep pace with the dynamic nature
of their business” said Bob Schultz, senior
vice president and general manager, Network
Storage Solutions, HP. “The ability to
mix and match high-performance Fibre Channel
drives with our low-cost hybrid drives in the
same disk array – without the need to
purchase additional hardware or software –
provides an opportunity to simplify technology
management and preserve technology investments.
This innovation helps maximize customer choice
while improving their ability to adapt to change.”
"As a leading supplier of Fibre Channel
hard drives, our customers are evaluating methods
of integrating near-line storage applications
into their traditionally high-performance, high-availability
systems," said Fumio Kugiya, general manager,
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "Customers
that have made significant Fibre Channel investments
over the years may be interested in the new
hybrid drives as a cost-effective way to extend
the life of their systems. We are pleased to
be working with HP to provide customers with
the flexibility they need to match the right
drive with the right application."
“As the pioneer and leader in Fibre Channel
technology, Seagate is once again showing its
commitment to the Fibre Channel interface as
well as serving the needs of storage users by
providing high-capacity, low $/GB enterprise
hard drives such as Seagate’s new NL35
Series,” said Jeff Loebbaka, vice president
of global marketing, Seagate Technology. “System
builders can now create new cost-effective nearline
enterprise storage systems that can be used
with existing FC SANs with no extra hardware
or changes to storage management software.”
“Emulex believes the advancement of low-cost,
high-capacity Fibre Channel drives is good news
for both the storage industry and storage end-users,”
said Mike Smith, executive vice president of
worldwide marketing, Emulex Corporation. “The
availability of Fibre Attached Technology Adapted
drives helps providers deliver solutions that
match drive types to their intended application.
This supports a number of initiatives we see
in the market, including information lifecycle
management, tiered-storage, and the use of Fibre
Channel SANs in small-to-medium businesses.”
"This announcement gives the Fibre Channel
user attractive new options, and ensures that
Fibre Channel will be a key SAN protocol even
as other protocols exert downward pricing pressures."
Dr Brian Staff, Vice President of Marketing,
Finisar Network Tools
"The FCIA's endorsement of the extension
of Fibre Channel into a new class of low-cost
storage devices illustrates the organization's
continued commitment to and support of innovative
technologies developed by its member companies
to further the industry as a whole. This technology
is the ideal solution for Fibre Channel users,
" said Steve Bucher, CEO, I-TECH Corp.
"PMC-Sierra's installed base of Fibre
Channel PBC Port ByPass Controllers and CTS
Loop Switches work seamlessly with all Fibre
Channel HDDs, providing system level hardware
compatibility between these two critical system
components," said Mark Stibitz, vice president
and general manager of PMC-Sierra's Enterprise
Storage Division. "PMC-Sierra supports
the Fibre Attached Technology Adapted disk drive
concept and is committed to providing storage
equipment vendors with proven, low-cost tiered
storage solutions."
“OEM, channel and end-user customers
of QLogic are moving quickly to adopt an emerging
class of simple, low-cost Fibre Channel switch
and HBA products,” said Frank Berry, vice
president of marketing, QLogic Corporation.
“By leveraging low-cost SATA technology,
Fibre Attached Technology Adapted drives are
sure to become an integral part of simple, low
cost SANs of the future.”
"We believe these drives greatly enhance
the competitiveness of Fibre Channel technology,"
said Steve Looby, product manager, SAN adapters,
LSI Logic. "The new offering of Fibre Attached
Technology Adapted drives gives users a new
option to deploy inexpensive, high density drives
for certain data center applications like near
line storage. The ability to seamlessly retrofit
existing product lines provides Fibre Channel
vendors with the ability to quickly meet the
demands of new markets and provides users with
flexibility and investment
protection."
About FCIA
The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a nonprofit international organization of manufacturers, systems integrators, developers, systems vendors, industry professionals and end users. With 80 member companies and FCIA affiliates in the United States and Japan, FCIA is committed to delivering a broad base of Fibre Channel infrastructure to support a wide array of industry applications within the mass storage and IT-based arenas. FCIA working groups focus on specific aspects of the technology, targeting both vertical and horizontal markets including storage, video, networking and SAN management. For more information on FCIA, please visit our web site: www.fibrechannel.org, contact us: info@fibrechannel.org or call 1-415-561-6270.
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