D-LINK introduces 8-BAY ISCSI storage solution for small ande medium-sized businesses

Newest xStack™ Storage Array Offers Affordable Data Backup, Easy Configuration and Management.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif.— D-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumers and business, today introduced the newest member in its xStack™ Storage series product line for small- to medium-sized businesses seeking a reliable, economical network data storage solution and enhanced data recovery with the 8-bay iSCSI SAN Array capable of handling over 80,000 I/Os per second.

The D-Link® xStack Storage SAN Array (DSN-2100-10) is based on the same powerful System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design found in larger arrays such as the DSN-3000 series, but housed in a smaller chassis with 8 hot swappable drive bays. Utilizing a 10Gbit iSCSI SoC solution capable of supporting up to 8TBs* of raw capacity using 1TB hard drives (more with larger drives as they become available), the DSN-2100-10 SAN Array can easily be implemented as near-line storage or as a supplement to a primary backup and recovery device.

The DSN-2100-10 iSCSI SAN Array implements four 1GbE ports and supports IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Groups (LAG) for full offload capability so that all four ports can be grouped together, totaling up to 425MB/s bandwidth, for increased throughput and redundancy.

“This tightly integrated xStack Storage Area Network architecture is in sharp contrast to the discrete implementation of competing products. Our stand-alone DSN-2100 targets the needs of growing companies that have outgrown Direct Attached Storage (DAS) and are now seeing a turnkey solution for storage expansion,” said AJ Wang, chief technology officer of D-Link. “With our new DSN-2100 unit we are providing a flexible SAN with easy configuration and management.”

Key Features and Benefits

* Reliability: Will auto-detect a failed drive and rebuild with a spare drive in the drive pool. Redundant power supplies provide added system failure protection.
* User-Friendly: Multi-drive storage solutions that are as easy to manage as a single hard drive on the system. The DSN-2100 has a built-in IP-SAN Device Manager (IDM) with an easy to understand Graphical User Interface (GUI) to create, manage, expand, and monitor the storage pool, volumes, and RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks).
* Flexibility: Up to 8 Terabytes* of storage capacity with 1TB hard drives. Larger drives will be supported as they become available.
* Scalability: To add more storage, simply plug a drive into an empty bay. As higher capacity hard drives are introduced, xStack Storage’s overall capacity will increase accordingly.
* Speed: Four 1GbE ports are supported on the DSN-2100: most competitors typically have one or two. These 4 ports can be aggregated for 4GbE throughput.
* Compatibility: The xStack Storage Family supports RAID levels 0, 1, 2, 1+0, 5 and JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) using SATA-I or SATA-II (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drives.
* Durability: The robust chassis of the DSN-2100 is designed for strength and durability.
* Firmware Recovery: Two complete firmware sets are kept in flash memory. If update fails to load, then the unit can revert to a previous version.
* Innovation: The DSN-2100 is the industry’s first SAN array to incorporate System on a Chip (SoC) technology.
* Value: Reduction of DAS (Direct Attached Storage) data kept in expensive online storage. Most competitors use discrete components and assemble them into a solution. Our SoC (System on a Chip) solution allows D-Link to drive the cost of our SAN solutions lower with the removal of several component devices normally required in discrete implementations. An overall economical all-in-one solution.
* Ease-of use: Smaller businesses often lack the knowledge for deploying and managing a Fibre Channel SAN. iSCSI allows them to leverage their existing Ethernet skill set.

Price and Availability

The D-Link DSN-2100-10 (MSRP $5,299.99) will be available in April, 2008 through D-Link’s network of value-added resellers (VARs), solution providers and distributors, and at D-Link’s online store, www.dlinkshop.com.