Xyratex is First to Market with 12Gb/s SAS Enabled Storage Solution

HAVANT, United Kingdom, Sept. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Xyratex Ltd (Nasdaq: XRTX), a leading provider of data storage technology, today announced the introduction of 12Gb/s SAS technology into its OneStor™ line of enterprise-class modular storage enclosures. This industry-first technology doubles the data transfer speed between the storage enclosure and the host server, significantly increasing the performance of I/O and bandwidth intensive applications. The availability of 12Gb/s SAS technology enables Xyratex's OEM customers to get to market faster with the most advanced storage solution.

This new technology innovation allows the Xyratex OneStor line to support 12Gb/s SAS EBODs and 12Gb/s host connectivity, which permits a theoretical maximum I/O bandwidth of 28.8GB/s from SAS hosts to the installed disk drives in 2U12, 2U24, 4U24 and 5U84 storage enclosures.

"Xyratex has a long history of innovation in OEM data storage, and our OneStor solutions are top-rated in the OEM marketplace because of their ability to deliver the best in performance, reliability and value," said Ed Prager, senior vice president and general manager of OEM Storage Solutions at Xyratex. "Our 12Gb/s support extends these benefits through the ability to integrate high-performance flash storage in a seamless manner over the fastest interconnects and accelerate existing 6Gb/s rotational devices, all within our standard density and unique high-density enclosures. As technology and the storage industry both continue to evolve, we'll stay aggressive about integrating the best in storage value so that our customers are able to satisfy their most pressing and challenging data center demands."

Xyratex will demonstrate its new 12Gb/s OneStor solution at the IDF to be held at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA, September 10-12. The IDF demonstration consists of Xyratex's 2U24 12Gb/s SAS enclosure with 12Gb/s SAS I/O modules utilizing PMC 12Gb/s SAS expanders connected to multiple Intel PCIe 3.0-based servers installed with LSI 12Gb/s SAS HBAs. The 12Gb/s SAS enclosure houses twenty-four (24) 12Gb/s SAS Solid State Disks (SSDs) from contributing participants HGST and Seagate. I/Ometer will run on the attached servers during demonstration to show I/O performance to/from the installed SSDs.

"The new Xyratex 12Gb/s solutions, compatible with Seagate 1200 Series SSDs, bring next-generation levels of performance and reliability to cloud and enterprise customers," said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. "Xyratex's innovative technologies as well as its industry position and thought leadership make them a key partner in Seagate's Cloud Builder Alliance."

"HGST has a long history of working with Xyratex, and we are excited about the announcement of their new 12Gb/s SAS solution as well as their interoperability with our 12Gb/s SAS Ultrastar^® MLC SSDs," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST. "We are pleased to be participating with Xyratex in its demonstration at IDF, which will illustrate the advantages of 12Gb/s SAS performance, scalability and ease of integration, along with SSD reliability and efficiency, into new or existing enterprise storage systems and designs."

"Working closely with key industry ecosystem partners such as Xyratex, LSI has ramped 12Gb/s SAS solutions to production, allowing customers to take advantage of the exciting performance and feature advantages 12Gb/s SAS technology offers," said Robin Wagner, senior director of marketing, LSI. "12Gb/s SAS is the preferred enterprise interface, helping traditional and cloud hyperscale datacenter environments contend with massive data growth and accelerate application performance."

"We're pleased that our 12Gb/s SAS technology, in partnership with Xyratex, is a part of this first to market announcement for their 12Gb/s SAS enclosure," said Kevin Burbank, senior director of product marketing and applications for PMC's Enterprise Storage Division. "The use of PMC's 12Gb/s SAS expanders within the new Xyratex solution and the demonstration highlights the advantages of low power consumption, robust signal integrity and high performance in optimizing the use of 6Gb/s and 12Gb/s SAS SSDs and HDDs."

"STA applauds Xyratex for advancing the implementation of 12Gb/s SAS within its next generation platforms," said Chris Lyon, executive director of the SCSI Trade Association. "This technology ensures optimal performance and efficiency for cloud and enterprise datacenters by doubling I/O storage performance and alleviating bottlenecks to help manage explosive data demands."

The OneStor family of data storage systems from Xyratex offers a series of storage building blocks that end users can deploy in a variety of ways to accommodate their most demanding storage requirements. In addition to standard JBODs, these next-generation storage solutions are able to consolidate both server and storage into a single storage computing platform. This unique architecture eliminates additional hardware costs, minimizes footprint requirements, and simplifies cabling and installation, enabling OEMs to deliver more powerful intelligent storage solutions along with their most advanced software capabilities directly to end users. For more information, visit http://www.xyratex.com/products/storage.

About Xyratex
Xyratex is a leading provider of data storage technology, including modular solutions for the enterprise data storage industry and hard disk drive (HDD) capital equipment for the HDD industry. Xyratex enterprise data storage platforms provide a range of advanced, scalable data storage solutions for the Original Equipment Manufacturer and High Performance Computing communities. As the largest capital equipment supplier to the HDD industry, Xyratex enables disk drive manufacturers and their component suppliers to meet today's technology and productivity requirements. Xyratex has over 25 years of experience in research and development relating to disk drives, storage systems and manufacturing process technology.

Founded in 1994 in an MBO from IBM, and with headquarters in the United Kingdom, Xyratex has an established global base with R&D and operational facilities in North America, Asia, and Europe.

SOURCE Xyratex Ltd