Micron Technology today announced another addition to its growing lineup of solid state drives (SSDs) targeted at data center appliances and enterprise storage platforms. The new Micron P410m SSD is a high-endurance, high reliability 6 Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drive built to provide the performance necessary for mission-critical tier 1 storage applications that require uninterrupted, 24/7 data access.

SAS is preferred in these applications due to its dual-port interface, which offers the high availability and accessibility customers have come to expect from a SAS drive. The new Micron P410m provides the consistent low latency and balanced read/write performance necessary for tackling the unique workloads of persistent data storage.

Seagate Technology today announced three new enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDD) optimized for traditional data centers and emerging cloud infrastructures.

Perfect for cloud bulk data storage, the Seagate Enterprise Value HDD provides up to 3 TB of storage in a low-power configuration that is perfect for efficiently and affordably storing the ever-growing amount of unstructured data typically stored in the cloud. The company also announced its next generation of highly-reliable hard disk drives, the Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD featuring the industry's widest range of capacities (1, 2, 3 and 4 TB) of secure data storage for robust data center usage and the Seagate Enterprise Performance 10K HDD which delivers best-in-class performance and built-in security for optimized storage efficiency and data protection.

LSI Corporation today introduced its latest MegaRAID 6 Gb/s SAS+SATA controllers and host bus adapters (HBAs) featuring the PCI Express 3.0 interface.

Seven new LSI MegaRAID controllers are offered with four or eight ports and provide a powerful combination of intelligent performance, enterprise RAID data protection and proven interoperability. Three new LSI HBA models provide state-of-the-art connectivity for servers and appliances in a variety of enterprise-level environments including corporate datacenters, the cloud and high-performance computing.

"In the face of massive data growth, system builders and resellers are racing to meet increasing demand for larger, more scalable systems that deliver reliability and high performance," said Brent Blanchard, director of worldwide channel sales and marketing, LSI. "The addition of PCIe 3.0 on the new MegaRAID controllers and HBAs brings dramatically higher levels of performance and allows greater system design flexibility, with proven LSI product quality and reliability."

Western Digital, a leader in the desktop, mobile, high-capacity enterprise and consumer markets for hard drives, today announced the availability of its third-generation WD S25 SAS hard drives, serving the performance-optimized, mission-critical enterprise server and storage market. Shipping now, the new 2.5-inch, 10,000 RPM, WD S25 with SAS 6 Gb/s interface hard drives offer IT professionals a more advanced array of ultra-reliable and efficient, high-performance storage, available in capacities of 300 GB, 450 GB, 600 GB, and 900 GB. The WD S25 line is designed for the most demanding applications such as online transaction processing and multi-tiered networked storage arrays.

LSI Corporation today announced a new line of MegaRAID SATA+SAS controller cards designed to deliver the high I/O transaction performance required to accelerate the most demanding database applications and datacenter workloads. Powered by the LSI dual-core 6 Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip (ROC), the new controllers deliver data quickly and reliably to mission-critical applications by combining the industry's highest server RAID performance, achieving up to 200,000 RAID 5 random I/Os per second (IOPS), with intelligent flash-based caching and enhanced data protection capabilities.

Demonstrating its commitment to delivering leading-edge technologies and solutions for enterprise-class servers and storage systems, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced that its Ultrastar enterprise-class solid state drive (SSD) family is the industry's first to use 25-nanometer (nm) single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash.

The Ultrastar SSD400S.B family combines Hitachi's proven enterprise hard disk drive (HDD) expertise with Intel's extensive capabilities in developing high-endurance SLC NAND flash memory and advanced SSD technology. The drives also conform to the Trusted Computing Group's Enterprise A Security Subsystem Class encryption specification, helping customers protect sensitive data, and reduce the costs associated with drive retirement and reuse.

Western Digital, a leader in the desktop, mobile, high-capacity enterprise and consumer markets for hard drives, today announced the availability of its second-generation WD S25 SAS drives (photo) and its latest WD RE SAS 3.5-inch drives for the traditional enterprise market. Shipping now, the 2.5-inch, 10,000 RPM, WD S25 with SAS 6 Gb/s interface hard drives offer IT professionals ultra-reliable and efficient, high-performance storage with new 450 GB and 600 GB capacities. The WD S25 line, including the previously released 147 GB and 300 GB capacities, is designed for mission-critical server and storage systems.

Also shipping now to OEMs, the new 3.5-inch, 7,200 RPM, WD RE SAS with 6 Gb/s interface hard drives offer 1 TB and 2 TB capacity points, and represent a key addition to WD's expanding enterprise product portfolio. The WD RE SAS drives mark an important commitment to the expansion of WD's SAS portfolio for high-capacity data center storage, storage area networks (SAN), network attached storage (NAS), direct attach storage (DAS), networked surveillance systems and cloud storage.

WD, known for its hard disk drive leadership in the desktop, mobile and consumer marketplaces, today announced its entry into the traditional enterprise market segment with volume production shipments of its first 10,000 RPM, 2.5-inch, small form factor, SAS interface hard drives. The WD S25 provides up to 300 GB of high-performance storage suitable for both mission-critical enterprise server and enterprise storage applications, such as high-I/O-driven applications and configurations, as well as data centers and large data arrays.

"Our entry into the traditional-enterprise market continues the strategic expansion and diversification of WD's broad market and product portfolio, and significantly increases our addressable revenue opportunity," said John Coyne, president and CEO of WD. "As with our previous market expansion and diversification efforts, WD will approach the traditional enterprise space with the same focus on quality, customer service, technology and value that has earned us strong positions in every market we serve."

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced worldwide availability of two new 15,000 RPM Ultrastar hard drives for Tier 0/1, mission-critical, enterprise storage applications. The new drives include the Ultrastar C15K147, Hitachi's first 15,000 RPM, 2.5-inch 6 Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) hard drive, and the new 600GB Ultrastar 15K600, the company's fourth generation 3.5-inch drive with either 6 Gb/s SAS or 4Gb/s Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FCAL) interfaces. To help enterprises protect sensitive data and comply with privacy and data protection regulations, Hitachi now offers industry-compliant, self-encrypting, enterprise-class hard drives as an option across all of its 10,000 and 15,000 RPM Ultrastar drives.

While enterprise operating costs continue to escalate, most IT budgets are either flat or trending downward. At the same time, enterprise data is proliferating at an unabated rate and sensitive data must be protected. These factors combine to make storage efficiency, data protection and return on assets (ROA) among the most pressing concerns for today's data center managers. In these environments, every possible technique must be applied to achieve maximum value, efficiency and security. This could mean applying tiered storage methods, implementing encryption technologies, reducing power, maximizing cooling while minimizing space requirements, or obtaining maximum performance out of individual components and systems.

Intel is excited to announce the launch of Intel RAID Controller RS2BL080 - the first in a series of RAID products designed to deliver significant performance improvements and SAS 2.0 features to Intel-based servers. The Intel "RS2" portfolio of Intel RAID products will allow customers to design higher-performing storage solutions for a diverse set of environments including those based on either mainstream 3 Gb/s SAS/SATA or the latest 6 Gb/s SAS drives.

The Intel RAID Controller RS2BL080, a first-generation 6G SAS adapter incorporating LSI MegaRAID technology, offers unprecedented performance with exceptional data protection and design flexibility. Features including LSI SAS2108 6Gb/s RAID on Chip (ROC) silicon and a native PCI Express Generation 2 architecture allow for significant performance gains for both 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s drive-based solutions. Data protection and availability are enhanced by new features including Decision Feedback Equalization for greater signal integrity, enhanced diagnostics, and more robust error reporting.

Seagate announced it is now shipping its technology-leading Cheetah 15K.7 enterprise-class hard drives into the worldwide distribution channel. As the highest performing, highest capacity 3.5-inch mission critical hard drive with best-in-class reliability for Tier 1 environments, the Cheetah 15K.7 drive is ideal for a wide range of server and storage applications. With the Cheetah 15K.7 hard drive, Seagate's technology leadership moves firmly past the competition as it delivers the industry's first 15K-rpm drive to reach the 600GB capacity point while providing record reliability of 1.6 million hours MTBF.

The Cheetah 15K.7 drive is available with the latest 6 Gb/s SAS or 4 Gb/s FC interfaces, and includes Seagate PowerTrim technology, which dynamically reduces power consumption. Together, these features enable system builders to deliver lower-cost, multi-drive servers and storage systems, making the Cheetah 15K.7 ideal for use in environments ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to the largest enterprises.

ATTO Technology and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced interoperability of their respective 6Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) products designed for use in high-performance server and storage applications. The combination of ATTO ExpressSAS Host Bus Adapters with Hitachi Ultrastar C10K300 hard drives deliver fast 6 Gb/s data transfers for high I/O enterprise environments. The new 6 Gb/s SAS interface delivers 100 percent faster data throughput than previously available using a 3 Gb/s SAS interconnect. The companies began working together early in the development of 6 Gb/s SAS to share design implementations and debug information, as well as conduct extensive testing to ensure an interoperable solution that delivers compatibility and overall system performance.