Cost-effective entry-Level RAID solutions deliver high performance and reliability

Microsemi Corporation has announced two new adapters in its award-winning Adaptec Series 8 product family. The 8405E and 8805E offer server storage customers entry-level systems with redundant array of independent disks (RAID) devices that deliver accelerated performance with built-in cache and uncompromised reliability. As the original true hardware RAID devices offering 12 Gbps throughput at each port, the new cost-effective adapter solutions enable entry-level servers and workstations with redundant boot support and input/output (I/O) intensive applications such as databases, video editing and network video recording (NVR), which require high bandwidth. They support hybrid RAID for maximum performance with solid state drives (SSDs) and cost-efficient redundancy. “Our new additions to the Series 8 family were driven by customer demand for a true hardware RAID solution at the entry level. We went a step further by providing on-board cache for accelerated performance, making these devices attractive to both current and new customers,” said Pete Hazen, vice president of scalable storage solutions at Microsemi. “This is the ideal solution for cost-effective servers and workstations that do not require the full-featured capabilities of our Series 8 RAID adapters.” The company’s new devices offer a migration path for those seeking to transition from an alternative software RAID solution to a robust hardware RAID solution. It also provides customers a migration path from the company’s current Series 6E 6 Gbps products to a 12 Gbps solution to future-proof and add additional capabilities to their servers. In addition to offering data reliability, they deliver over nine times improvement in random read SATA SSD performance over the Series 6E devices and increase the bandwidth capability of SAS/SATA devices by 16 times. “We had great success with the Microsemi Adaptec Series 6E 6 Gbps RAID products,” said Viktor Martens, product management, servers, at Wortmann AG. “With the Series 8E 12Gbps RAID adapters we see overall performance improvement with SSDs and the reliability and robustness of hardware RAID that are important criteria for our customers.” “Entry-level hardware RAID is an essential technology to maximize the performance of SSDs or provide critical data protection in a cost-effective redundancy solution,” said Jeff Janukowicz, research vice president at IDC. “Microsemi has become a key player in the storage market and the addition of an entry-level RAID card to expand its proven 12G Series 8 SAS/SATA product line is another example of that commitment.”