Dot Hill Mounts 3 TB Storage For SMBs

Dot Hill AssuredSAN 3000 Series Storage Array

Dot Hill Systems on Monday updated its entry-level storage array to include 3-terabyte disk drives.

The AssuredSAN 3000 Series systems, which were first introduced last September, can now scale to a total of 288 terabytes of storage through "just a bunch of disks" (JBOD) expansion units, or hard disks that haven't been configured according to the RAID system.

The storage arrays offer support for 8-Gb Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs) and 10-Gb iSCSI. Enhancements to the new series include drive spin-down capability and a 595-watt 80 PLUS-rated (greater than 80% energy efficiency) power supplies.

The AssuredSAN 3000 Series includes product support software to protect against data loss, including AssuredSnap (snapshots), AssuredCopy (volume copy), and AssuredRemote (snapshot replication). The products also support mixed-drive configurations, including serial attached SCSI (SAS), serial ATA (SATA), and solid-state drive (SSD).

The new storage array builds upon Dot Hill's growing storage product list. Dot Hill may not be a common name in the industry because for many years it has exclusively been an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for big name storage vendors HP, Dell, AMD, Motorola, and others. Yet in 2009, Dot Hill Systems began selling its storage products directly and has since released numerous storage-related products.

"The thing with being an OEM supplier is that it forces us to be on the cutting edge," said Jim Jonez, senior marketing director for Dot Hill Systems, in an interview. "We have to be a technology leader to be competitive as an OEM supplier. So this announcement today is that we are one of the first to bring this drive technology into this class of storage."

Jonez claims the AssuredSAN 3000 Series is one of the first to bring up to 36 TB of data capacity in a 2U entry-level system, with the AssuredSAN 300 Series of storage arrays. Last year, Dot Hill was first to market with an 8-GB Fiber Channel interface, an 8-GB fiber, and iSCSI hybrid interface, and a 10-GB iSCSI interface, Jonez said.

The AssuredSAN 3000 Series provides a modular storage solution designed to provide small and midsize businesses with an easy way to migrate from physical servers with direct attached storage to a consolidated IT infrastructure. The modularity has a management interface that provides a straightforward tool to configure access to the storage array that includes RAID controllers, host interfaces, chassis, power supplies, and drive options are all modular components.

It also includes Dot Hill's AssuredRemote software that provides array-to-array remote replication that reproduce up to 1,000 snapshots per storage array for disaster-recovery protection and business continuity.

A dual-controller AssuredSAN 3730 Fibre Channel model populated with new 3-TB drives is expected to sell for approximately $15,960.

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