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Gadzoox today announced the new Slingshot 4218HA, an Open Fabric 2Gb, high available, SAN switch and the Redundant Power Supply Unit (RPSU) for Slingshot 4218 SAN switches. Both Slingshot products solve high availability requirements by providing necessary redundancy and data continuity features.
“SAN switches are important devices in building a true high availability storage network. Unfortunately, high available features in SAN switches have increased the cost of the devices to the point that it has become difficult for IT professionals to justify the cost especially at the entry-level,” said Steve Dalton, CEO and President, Gadzoox Networks. “We specifically designed the Slingshot 4218HA and 4218RPSU for the entry-level SAN market to offer customers a way to solve their high availability requirements at a value that is unmatched in the market today.”
For mission critical applications requiring five 9’s reliability the Slingshot 4218HA is an 18 port, multi-protocol, multi-speed, SAN switch with redundant, high quality, hot-swappable N+1 fans and power supplies, and an aggregate switching bandwidth of 18Gb half duplex/36Gb full duplex. The Slingshot 4218HA is based on Gadzoox next generation switching ASIC, the foundation for the recently announced FabriCore Engines(TM) technology suite.
Gadzoox new Open SAN OS for Slingshot comes standard with the Slingshot 4218HA and is architected to support customization in the GUI and CLI as well as in-band and out-of-band updates, industry standard MIBs, and SNMP-based applications. A key benefit of the Open SAN OS is the management of the N+1 power supplies and fans by ensuring if there is a failure of either component, the remaining fan or power supply will take over operations with no interruption to the switch or the data passing through the switch. Additionally, the Slingshot 4218HA, through the Open SAN OS, can be set to notify the customer when a power supply or fan is in the process of failing. This enables the user to take preventive action before the actual failure occurs. The Open SAN OS also supports non-disruptive cut over to new firmware as part of the switches high availability features.
The Slingshot 4218 RPSU is a simple and easy way to add power supply redundancy for continuous data availability for new and existing Slingshot 4218 customers. In today’s economy where cost is the biggest factor in building SANs, customers that wish to add high availability features are now able to do so with the RPSU at a fraction of the cost of competitive switches. The Slingshot 4218RPSU can house up to three power supplies and, in a 1:1 ratio, can support up to three switches. Each of the power supplies is independent and managed by the Slingshot switch it is connected to for seamless operation. The switch monitors the power supply status, and if a failure occurs in the primary power supply, the RPSU will be automatically brought up and an alert will be sent to the customer. Each power supply within the RPSU is hot-pluggable and can be replaced in seconds. The RPSU, with three power supplies, attached to three switches can provide cost-effective redundancy for 54 2Gb ports in a compact 4U high chassis.
“Even though companies have been willing to pay a premium in the past to protect their data, the slow economy and IT department cut backs are driving the need for reliable, accessible data but for a reasonable investment,” continued Dalton. “Customers have been mislead to believe that high availability and data availability features should cost them a premium and Gadzoox Networks is proving that false with the introduction of the Slingshot 4218HA and the Slingshot 4218RPSU.”
The Slingshot 4218HA will be available Q4 at less then $500 per port. The newly announced Open SAN OS is included at no additional charge with the Slingshot 4218HA.
