Product Roundup: What's new with SAS?
In a recent online poll of
InfoStor readers (including end users, VARs, and systems/storage integrators), 43% said that SATA drives will account for the majority of their disk drive purchases over the next six months, and 28% cited Fibre Channel drives. Somewhat surprisingly, 25% said that SAS drives will account for the majority of their drive purchases. Not bad for an interface that has only been around for about two years.
SAS plays supporting role in media/entertainment
With media and entertainment content increasing in resolution, content data files have swelled, and data throughput has increased proportionally. At the same time, content producers are under more pressure than ever before to control prices. SAS-based storage systems play an important role in making these seemingly contrary goals possible.
SAS: The cutting edge of blade server storage
Blade servers are now very familiar to IT organizations, but they still have a lot of growth potential. And one of the gating factors for unlocking that potential is improving the relationship of blade servers and storage. Blade servers need a close relationship with storage -- just not too close. To get the most out of blade servers, no storage should be on the blade server itself. The storage should be either on a local "network" within a chassis (i.e., direct-attached storage) or externally on a SAN. Why?
SAS: The cutting edge of blade server storage
Blade servers are now very familiar to IT organizations, but they still have a lot of growth potential. And one of the gating factors for unlocking that potential is improving the relationship of blade servers and storage. Blade servers need a close relationship with storage -- just not too close. To get the most out of blade servers, no storage should be on the blade server itself. The storage should be either on a local "network" within a chassis (i.e., direct-attached storage) or externally on a SAN. Why?
LSI brings SAS to the channel
LSI has announced a new pricing and product strategy to help the company penetrate the Serial ATA (SATA)-oriented channel market with its Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) products.
SAS: The new kid on the I/O block
With the recent addition of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), end users and systems/storage integrators have a wide array of choices in enterprise-level disk drives and host connections.
LSI ships SAS-SAS RAID arrays
In a further sign that the new Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface is gaining momentum, at least at the OEM level, LSI's Engenio division this week began shipments of SAS-SAS (host and drive connections) external RAID arrays to its OEMs.
HP DAS arrays support SAS, SATA
Hewlett-Packard expanded its line of entry-level storage systems for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) this week with the debut of two new direct-attached storage (DAS) disk arrays with support for multiple drive types and price tags of well under $5,000.
LSI expands SAS, SATA lines
LSI has rounded out its Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) adapter lines with additions for server, workstation, and enterprise storage interconnection requirements.
SGI adds SAS disk arrays
In an indication that the Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) disk-drive interface is ready for prime time, SGI has become one of the first disk-systems vendors to ship SAS-based storage arrays. (Hewlett-Packard is also shipping SAS systems.) SGI also added an entry-level 4Gbps Fibre Channel array to its roster of RAID arrays.
Do SAS-based SANs make sense?
There is a growing debate over a new way to build SANs using Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) as a fabric interconnect. The technology exists and does have potential benefits, but there is some question as to whether end users really need yet another type of storage-network fabric.
SAS-SATA rollouts accelerate
Adapters, controllers, and subsystems based on the Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface-the successor to the venerable parallel SCSI interface-are rolling out in production volumes, and SAS-based servers are available from vendors such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM.
SAS rollouts pick up steam
By now, all storage integrators and users are familiar with the benefits of the Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface: It has better performance scalability than its parallel SCSI predecessor, it's simpler to integrate and, perhaps most importantly, users and integrators can configure SAS systems with either SAS or Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives.
SATA, SAS drive toward the enterprise
Serial ATA (SATA) disk drives are taking the enterprise by storm, winding up in places for which SATA was not originally intended. Simultaneously, several vendors are enhancing SATA to make it robust enough for enterprise-level requirements, most notably in the areas of performance, reliability, and availability.
