Alacritech, Hitachi Data Systems, and Nishan Systems
First to Validate Wire-Speed Gigabit iSCSI Performance
IP Storage Networking Innovators Prove iSCSI Ready for Customer Deployment
San Jose, Calif., — January 28, 2002— Alacritech, the innovator and leading provider of TCP/IP acceleration solutions that enable fast and efficient servers and storage systems, and Nishan Systems, the world's first supplier of native IP storage solutions, today announced that they have achieved wire-speed iSCSI (Internet SCSI) throughput on a single Gigabit Ethernet connection. While most industry predictions estimate that high-speed iSCSI products will be released by the end of 2002, Alacritech, Nishan, and Hitachi Data Systems have beat that timetable by a year, shipping in 2001 full wire-speed iSCSI products in proven SAN configurations.
In a breakthrough demonstration of iSCSI performance, a server with an Alacritech Gigabit Ethernet Server and Storage Accelerator was connected to a Nishan IP Storage switch via a single Gigabit Ethernet link. The Nishan IP Storage switch was connected, in turn, to a Hitachi Freedom Storage¹ system. Alacritech's Server and Storage Accelerator maximized the sustained rate of iSCSI data at over 219 megabytes per second with less than eight percent CPU utilization, while the Nishan IP Storage switch provided wire-speed conversion from iSCSI to the Fibre Channel storage system.
Benefits of iSCSI and Open Systems
The most compelling business benefit of the iSCSI transport protocol is its ability to leverage existing IP infrastructures and IT staff knowledge when shifting from direct-attached storage to the more cost-effective and manageable storage area networks (SANs). iSCSI instantly transforms a shared or dedicated IP network into a SAN, clearly demonstrating the convergence of storage and networking. The open, standards-based approach to IP Storage now gives customers a highly interoperable solution for implementing mass storage.
"iSCSI promises to let users operate SAN, NAS, LAN, and wide-area networks as a single, integrated network. This option will help IT managers chose storage, server, and networking technologies that are more easily managed, scalable, and cost effective," said Nick Allen, vice president and research director, Gartner, Inc. "TCP/IP offload engines should go a long way toward leveling the differences in resource consumption among storage networking technologies."
New iSCSI Performance Benchmark Set
"We are extremely pleased with the results we achieved with Nishan Systems and Hitachi Data Systems in demonstrating the ability to deliver Fibre Channel performance and efficiency through iSCSI," said Larry Boucher, chairman and CEO, Alacritech. "Other companies demonstrating their iSCSI solutions now have a demanding performance benchmark to reach."
Alacritech's Server and Storage Accelerator uses patented, standards-compliant SLIC (session-layer interface card) Technology to address network processing bottlenecks. This new product category of integrated storage network interface cards (IS-NICs) optimizes the performance of NAS appliances, iSCSI storage devices, and servers with TCP/IP offload functionality. Just as graphics accelerators moved the graphical processing from the host processor to the graphics adapter, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet accelerators using SLIC Technology remove the burden of TCP/IP and iSCSI networking protocol processing from the host processor.
iSCSI Interoperability with HDS Fibre Channel Storage
"Hitachi Data Systems is committed to providing open, interoperable storage networking solutions, including those focused on iSCSI," said Hu Yoshida, chief technical officer, Hitachi Data Systems. "We are pleased to work with Alacritech and Nishan Systems on this breakthrough announcement of iSCSI performance and capability, demonstrating to our customers that they can make use of IP Storage technologies in demanding enterprise environments."
Hitachi Freedom Storage¹, with its switch-based architecture is uniquely designed to meet the performance demands of high-speed storage networks. This architecture is fundamental to the company's SAN solutions, with products renowned for their unparalleled availability, connectivity, performance, and scalability. Hitachi's Freedom Data Networks¹ leverage SAN technology and enable customers to consolidate servers and storage, increase data availability, centralize storage management, and back up data without affecting network performance.
>High-performance iSCSI Solutions Available Now
"From the start, Nishan Systems has pioneered the highest performing solutions in the IP Storage market. Today's iSCSI performance announcement confirms our commitment to wire-speed solutions, and proves our ability to extend that performance to the end systems with partners such as Alacritech and HDS," said Aamer Latif, president and CEO, Nishan Systems. "Wire-speed iSCSI operation was predicted to be available at the end of 2002, so we and Alacritech are especially proud to have reached that goal within the first week of the year. As an industry, we now can say that iSCSI is here and ready for customer deployment."
Nishan IP Storage switches support Fibre Channel switching, Gigabit Ethernet switching, and wire-speed conversion between Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet. Each interface can be configured to support iSCSI end systems, Fibre Channel end systems, or Fibre Channel SANs. The multiprotocol switches also support, via iSCSI or iFCP, remote storage links of any distance across high-speed IP networks. They can be used to connect existing Fibre Channel SANs through a standard E_Port interface or to build an IP SAN fabric that integrates Fibre Channel and iSCSI devices with data center, metro-area, or wide-area IP networks.
Additional Details
Additional information can be found in the paper, Achieving Peak Wire-Speed iSCSI Throughput, published at www.alacritech.com and www.NishanSystems.com.
About Alacritech, Inc.
Alacritech was founded by Larry Boucher, creator of the SCSI interface, to deliver upon his vision of eliminating the server bottleneck. Today, Alacritech, Inc. is the innovator of accelerator solutions that enable fast and efficient servers and storage systems. Alacritech's complete line of high-performance server and storage accelerators is based on the company's patented SLIC Technology to optimize the performance of servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and iSCSI storage devices. SLIC Technology is the first fully compatible and scalable technology to offload network protocol processing, primarily TCP/IP, from software on the host system to silicon on the adapter. Based in San Jose, California, Alacritech is privately held. Alacritech is a voting member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and a founding member of the SNIA IP Storage Forum. For more information about Alacritech and its products, please visit the company's Web site at www.alacritech.com.
About Hitachi Data Systems
Hitachi Data Systems is a leading supplier of storage hardware, software, solutions and services. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), Japan's largest electronics company, HDS is committed to providing the technological infrastructure for the world's most information-intensive corporations. With 2,600 employees, Hitachi Data Systems does business in the public and private sectors in 170 countries on six continents, including the rapidly emerging economies in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. Its customers include more than 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies, and all of the major Storage Service Providers (SSPs). For more information, please visit the HDS Web site at www.hds.com.
About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.
*At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.
About Nishan Systems
Nishan Systems, the world's first supplier of native IP Storage solutions, builds open storage networking products based on IP and Ethernet, the international networking standards. Nishan's Multiprotocol Storage framework supports iSCSI, iFCP, FCIP, iSNS, Fibre Channel, SCSI, and all types of Network-Attached Storage (NAS) interfaces. The highly reliable and manageable IP Storage fabric extends seamlessly from the data center to the metro area and beyond. Nishan's products are fully compatible with the millions of LAN, MAN, and WAN routers and switches already installed and mastered by IT professionals. Nishan Systems has been named to top company rankings in Computerworld, Red Herring Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle, and Nishan's IP Storage switches recently received the InfoWorld Readers' Choice Award for best new storage products. Nishan Systems, a full voting member of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), is based in San Jose, California, and can be reached at www.NishanSystems.com, and at 408-519-3700.
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Alacritech, the Alacritech logo, SLIC Technology, and the SLIC Technology logo are registered trademarks of Alacritech, Inc. Hitachi Data Systems is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi Freedom Storage and Hitachi Freedom Data Networks are registered trademarks of Hitachi Data Systems. Nishan Systems, the Nishan Systems logo, Blended Fabric and MultiService Interface, are trademarks of Nishan Systems, Inc. SoIP is a registered trademark of Nishan Systems, Inc. Other marks are the property of their respective owners.
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Alacritech iSCSI product, please click here.