Fusion-io Collaborating with SCSI Trade Association Members in Driving Open SCSI Express Standards

SALT LAKE CITY, May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO) today announced that it is actively participating with the SCSI Trade Association (STA), a member-run industry association established to support and promote SCSI technology, to develop and market the open SCSI Express industry standard for PCI Express based storage. By leveraging PCIe connections in the server with a focus on NAND flash technologies, the standard will provide organizations with more options for integrating performance storage solutions into their datacenters. Fusion-io will also join in the upcoming SCSI Trade Association Technology Showcase, "Taming the Data Beast!" on Wednesday, May 9 in Santa Clara.

"STA is pleased with the decision of Fusion-io to join STA in helping drive SCSI Express as open industry standard for PCIe based storage," stated Harry Mason president of STA. "Given Fusion's rich heritage in delivering innovative NAND flash solutions to the market, their contributions will be important in shaping the final outcome of the initiative."

SCSI Express comprises a set of technologies designed to deliver an enterprise storage solution based on PCI Express, including the SCSI over PCIe (SOP) protocol, the PCIe architecture Queuing Interface (PQI), a universal drive connector focused on 2.5-inch platforms, the PCIe physical layer and OS support. To help develop open standards for SCSI Express, Fusion-io will participate in the T10 Technical Committees, which are responsible for standardizing the foundation SCSI technologies.

The T10 Committee's work on the logical SCSI protocol, transport and delivery standards will provide the basis for SCSI Express standardization. SCSI Express utilizes the SCSI over PCIe and the PCI Express architecture queuing interface model being defined within the T10 Committee. The T10 standardization efforts will become the basis of SCSI Express, which in turn is defined and marketed by the SCSI Trade Association. Fusion-io was the first company to integrate server-based NAND flash via the PCI Express bus. Through the PCIe interface, Fusion's sophisticated ioMemory software architecture can significantly reduce the I/O barriers that otherwise limit CPUs in modern datacenters.

"Originally previewed at HP Discover, an ioMemory-based 2.5-inch form factor drive connected to a 2U HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8 server via SCSI Express will be demonstrated in a technology preview at the upcoming SCSI Trade Association Technology Showcase, and we are proud to be continuing our work with STA members and the T10 committee to help shape the open SCSI Express standard," said Gary Orenstein, Fusion-io Vice President of Products. "We believe that SCSI Express will be adopted as a leading standard for PCI Express deployments. We look forward to collaborating with fellow STA members and leading SCSI experts to share our expertise in this area to provide open standards as organizations modernize IT infrastructure by eliminating legacy storage interfaces and move data performance closer to the host processors."

For more information about the SCSI Trade Association Technology Showcase in Santa Clara, go to http://www.scsita.org/sas-showcase-2012.html. Please visit the SCSI Trade Association to learn more about the emerging SCSI Express at www.scsita.org. More information on the T10 Technical Committee can be found at www.t10.org.

To learn more about Fusion-io visit www.fusionio.com. Follow Fusion-io on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fusionio or www.twitter.com/fusionioUK and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fusionio.

About Fusion-io

Fusion-io has pioneered a next generation storage memory platform for shared data decentralization that significantly improves the processing capabilities within a datacenter by relocating process-critical, or "active", data from centralized storage to the server where it is being processed, a methodology referred to as data decentralization. Fusion's integrated hardware and software solutions leverage non-volatile memory to significantly increase datacenter efficiency and offers enterprise grade performance, reliability, availability and manageability. Fusion's data decentralization platform can transform legacy architectures into next generation datacenters and allows enterprises to consolidate or significantly reduce complex and expensive high performance storage, high performance networking and memory-rich servers. Fusion's platform enables enterprises to increase the utilization, performance and efficiency of their datacenter resources and extract greater value from their information assets.

Note on Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, including, but are not limited to, statements concerning our efforts to develop open standards for server-deployed NAND flash using SCSI and PCIe and the anticipated benefits of our products and technology for users.  These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions regarding future events and business performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained, anticipated, or implied in any forward-looking statement, including, but not limited to, the risks that the users of the company's products may not realize the anticipated benefits of our products and such other risks set forth in the registration statements and reports that Fusion-io files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.fusionio.com.  You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.  Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that the future results, levels of activity, performance or events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur.  Fusion-io undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason after the date of this press release.

SOURCE Fusion-io