DAS, iSCSI and NAS storage systems such as JMR's BlueStor™ Storage Server are using open architectures based on industry-standard networking technologies and new management tools to reduce cost, making storage area networks a practical solution for today's increasing storage requirements.
The BlueStor™ Storage Server features 16 hot-swappable 3 Gbps SAS 3 Gbps SATA disk drive bays, four (N+1 configured) high-velocity cooling fans, dual 600W (N+1) hot-swappable power supplies, an internal SAS Expander for single cable connection to a SAS host controller, and either a high-performance Intel Starlake™ SAS mother board with two dual core 3 GHz Xeon CPUs or mounting provisions for a similar mother board (Intel and Tyan-AMD versions available). This Enterprise class product is SES 2.0 compliant and provides real-time disk activity/failure status for every drive bay as well as physical user interface controls and indicators for power and cooling status with visible and audible alarms, plus front panel “on-off” and “reset” switches.
The BlueStor™ Storage Server is unique in its modular design; it uses no cables in the data path, thus minimizing airflow restrictions and points of failure. Like other BlueStor™ 3U rackmount products, it uses vertically-mounted disk drives in lightweight, low-cost, vibration dampening disk drive canisters for the highest signal integrity and maximized air flow, resulting in lower drive temperatures.
The Storage Server is available complete with a modern Intel Starlake SAS mother board, two dual-core 3 GHz Xeon CPUs and memory as model RS3UD. It is also available as above but without the mother board and its components, Intel-ready as model RS3UD-NMB-I; or as above without the mother board and its components, Tyan/AMD-ready as model RS3UD-NMB-T. All models include N+1 power and cooling, SAS Expander, 16-drive SAS/SATA backplane and 16 disk drive canisters, plus rack mounting kit.
Businesses today are facing data storage requirements that are fast exceeding their existing storage capacity. In the past, high equipment and
operations costs associated with proprietary technologies have put SANs beyond the budget of many small and mid-sized companies.
Today, however, the total cost of ownership (TCO) equation is changing.
