FibreCAT SX is easy to use, guarantees optimum performance and availability

Fujitsu Siemens Computers will present a new storage solution for online operation in Hall 1, Booth G51, at this year`s CeBIT show in Hanover, Germany, from 9 to 15 March.

"While the FibreCAT SX60 primarily addresses small and medium enterprises, the FibreCAT SX80 was specially designed to accommodate the needs of large customers and data centre operators," said Dr Beck, Vice-President, Storage Division at Fujitsu Siemens Computers.

Both systems comply with user requirements for high availability, reliability and speed. After all, the two models offer not only such state-of-the-art storage technology as redundant components and a 4 Gigabit per second fibre channel connection. Two new technologies developed by Fujitsu Siemens Computers also provide higher availability (FibreCap) and quick access to the data (FibreCache).

The FibreCAT SX systems take up two height units in the rack and are equipped to accommodate 12 drives; they can handle maximum data volumes ranging from 146GB to 30TB. The solution is one of the first 4Gb per second fibre channel systems on the market. The new FibreCache technology of Fujitsu Siemens Computers connects the RAID Controller caches directly so that they are synchronised much quicker than in conventional storage systems. Snapshots are already a standard feature.

The systems are equipped with redundant RAID controllers, fans and power supplies, whereby all these components support hot swapping. Should a power failure occur, the FibreCAT systems save the contents of the cache on a built-in, removable Compact Flash (CF) card. The power for this backup process is delivered by a capacitor, which, unlike the batteries generally used, can be recharged immediately. As a result, the new FibreCap technology protects the system in the event of power failures and full cache power is available again as soon as the power has been switched back on.

The FibreCAT SX systems have been tested by Fujitsu Siemens Computers in a number of different application scenarios and they have turned out excellent results in terms of speed and reliability. They are ideally suited for direct connection to the server, for cluster solutions or as storage systems for such databases as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and mySQL as well as for disk-to-disk backup.

They can also be equally well used for storage consolidation or for such applications as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft IIS, Microsoft Business Solutions and SAP.

The storage systems have been designed for heterogeneous environments and are the optimum solution for PRIMERGY, PRIMEPOWER and PRIMEQUEST servers.

The FibreCAT SX models will be available as of May 2006.

The FibreCAT SX systems are quick and easy to install; the pre-installed administration software is simple to operate via the intuitive Web interface. A variety of different features make using the storage systems very convenient in actual practice. Thanks to the integration of Microsoft Virtual Disk Services (VDS), for example, it is possible to create and allocate Logical Unit Numbers (LUN) and even extend them during operation.

"Nowadays, even small and mid-sized companies face the challenge of managing large amounts of data," said Rui de Oliveira, Product Manager Enterprise Computing. "They require functional as well as economical solutions. Our FibreCAT SX systems are products that are based on the latest in storage technology and combine high quality and availability with user-friendliness."

FibreCAT SX systems are "state-of-the-art" storage from Fujitsu Siemens Computers:

* FibreCAT SX storage devices cover a wide range of storage needs - from 146GB to 30TB. At two height units in the rack, they are able to accommodate 12 drives. Conventional systems generally need three to five height units to fit only 14 to 15 drives.
* Thanks to the latest 4-Gb/s FibreChannel connections, the FibreCAT SX devices are very fast. SATA-II guarantees an optimum price/capacity ratio and 15K rpm SAS ensures high performance. The systems are equipped with FibreCache, which makes sure the cache contents of the two RAID controller are constantly synchronised via a high-speed direct connection and that the controller power is exploited as effectively as possible.
* Snapshots are a standard feature. This function reproduces replicas with either read-only or full read-write access. The number of snapshots can be expanded optionally.
* Seamless integration with the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) enables application-consistent snapshots for serverless backups. You can download photos from the Fujitsu Siemens Computers photo server at Click here (FibreCAT SX60) Click here (FibreCAT SX80)