ATTO Announces Industry’s First 16Gb/s Fibre Channel-to-SAS RAID Storage Controller

Oct. 24, 2012 - PRLog -- Responding to the needs of storage subsystem manufacturers and integrators, ATTO Technology, Inc. has launched the industry’s first 16Gb Fibre Channel-to-SAS RAID controller. These controllers provide a flexible, scalable and tiered storage system with support for both hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs).  The FastStream™ 9000 allows users to manage applications on multiple tiers of storage controlled from a single subsystem while providing drive assessment and latency management.  Users can now take advantage of the benefits of Fibre Channel connectivity with a variety of drive options including SAS/SATA SSDs for online cache, SAS hard drives for primary storage applications such as transactional databases and SATA drives for secondary applications like disk-to-disk backup.

“ATTO’s new FastStream incorporates leading-edge 16Gb Fibre Channel technology while offering original equipment manufacturers the flexibility of one solution that can support everything from SSDs to tape storage,” said Wayne Arvidson, vice president of marketing at ATTO Technology, Inc.  “What sets ATTO apart in the industry is our ability to provide the broadest portfolio of solutions for original equipment manufacturers and system integrators designing state-of-the-art data infrastructures.  Leading vendors are shipping the first FastStream 9000-enabled storage subsystems now, and we expect more embedded products to be released in early 2013.”  

ATTO offers a complete family of entry-level, midrange, and enterprise-class bridge, RAID and JBOD controller solutions supporting the latest in host and disk connectivity including 16 and 8Gb/s Fibre Channel, 6Gb/s SAS/SATA, and 10Gb Thunderbolt™ technology enabled devices. They can be pre-configured to meet original equipment manufacturer specifications and are available in multiple form factors.

ATTO FastStream™ 9000 Storage Controllers - (Model No. FSSC-9000-E00) FastStream (http://www.attotech.com/products/family.php?id=5) Storage Controllers are designed to sit between workstations and low-cost JBOD disk storage, providing users “pay-as-you-grow” scalability without purchasing additional RAID controllers when expansion is needed. They are well-suited for shared applications in IT and digital media and can be tuned across a spectrum of high IOP or high-bandwidth environments.  They are also backwards compatible with 8Gb/s and 4Gb/s Fibre Channel infrastructures. When coupled with an ATTO Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter, Multipath Director™ (http://www.attotech.com/features/multipath-director/) technology allows users to directly attach high-availability storage to Mac OS® X, Linux, and Windows® 8/7/Vista/XP workstations, eliminating the need for an Ethernet connection through a server.

Also available for the ATTO FastStream is CacheAssure™ (http://www.attotech.com/features/CacheAssure/), a technology that safeguards data in the cache in the event of a power loss via battery-less supercapacitor technology. Data is protected for up to 10 years in the event of a system disruption, and is automatically written to disk when the storage system indicates it is operational. It also eliminates the need to monitor and replace batteries, lowering system administration costs.

ATTO FibreBridge™ - (Model No. FCBR-6500-E00) FibreBridge (http://www.attotech.com/products/family.php?id=2) products allow SAS/SATA disk or SAS tape storage to integrate into a Fibre Channel SAN to maintain the benefits of a Fibre Channel infrastructure while updating storage. This provides increased availability and scalability, while allowing the use of direct attached storage on a shared Fibre Channel network. The FibreBridge effectively transfers data with minimal overhead from multiple combinations of protocols and can be configured to match unique customer specifications.

ATTO’s FibreBridges use intelligent Bridging Architecture™ (https://www.attotech.com/features/intelligent-bridging-architecture/), a technology that improves backup data performance by controlling drives to minimize the potential for failures.  They also incorporate ATTO’s Drive Map Director™, which reduces down time during drive maintenance by keeping the existing network topology available without having to re-map the LUN structure of the SAN.

ATTO ThunderStream™ Desklink™ Storage Controller - (Model No.TSSC-3808-E00) ThunderStream (http://www.attotech.com/products/category.php?id=15&catid=17) controllers enable storage and network connectivity for SAS, SATA, Fibre Channel or Ethernet devices to Thunderbolt™ technology enabled devices. They allow laptops, all-in-ones and Ultrabooks unprecedented connectivity to high-performance network and storage infrastructures.

Differentiating features that come standard with ATTO RAID products include DriveAssure™ (http://www.attotech.com/features/DriveAssure/) and Advanced Data Streaming (ADS™) Technology (http://www.attotech.com/features/ADS/) .  DriveAssure monitors the response time of slow drives and searches for and repairs bad sectors extending the life of drives by allowing them to run longer, faster and smoother while preventing premature drive failures. In the event of a drive failure, it ensures 100% productivity by completing drive rebuilds up to 50% faster than the competition.  Advanced Data Streaming manages latency by providing controlled data acceleration for smooth transfers resulting in consistent performance in high-bandwidth applications and uninterrupted workflows. ADS stems from ATTO’s heritage of developing the industry’s first solid state storage device in 1988.

Embeddable ATTO FastStream™ and FibreBridge™ products feature the ExpressNAV™ Storage Manager, a Java-based enterprise RAID management software application.  It provides the market’s most comprehensive set of tools including remote event notification, error detection, enclosure management and monitoring. ATTO ThunderStream™ products utilize the ATTO Config Tool, a client-side application which has RAID management tools similar to those provided by ExpressNAV.

“For 25 years, ATTO Technology has been helping premier network and storage providers accelerate their time to market and expand their design and engineering capabilities,” added Arvidson. “Our FastStream™, FibreBridge™ and ThunderStream™ products are the latest in our expanding line of embedded offerings, and a prime example of ATTO bringing the latest innovations to the industry.”

The FastStream 9000 will be available for OEM qualifications November 1, 2012. ThunderStream, FibreBridge and other FastStream models are available immediately for evaluation or purchase.

For additional information, please visit www.attotech.com/solutions/OEM or contact an ATTO authorized representative.

For more information on the ATTO certification process, please visit: www.attotech.com/support/interoperability.

About ATTO Technology, Inc.:

In our 25th year, ATTO Technology, Inc. is a global leader of storage and network connectivity and infrastructure solutions for data-intensive computing environments.  ATTO provides a wide range of end-to-end solutions to help customers better store, manage and deliver their data.  With a focus toward markets that require higher performance, ATTO manufactures host adapters, RAID adapters, network adapters, RAID storage controllers, ThunderboltTMtechnology enabled DesklinkTM devices, bridges, switches and software.  ATTO solutions are based on providing a high level of connectivity to all storage interfaces including Fibre Channel, SAS, SATA, iSCSI, 10GbE, FCoE and Thunderbolt. ATTO distributes its products worldwide through Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), systems integrators, VARs and authorized distributors.

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