Nimbus Forges 10 Gigabit Ethernet Storage Alliance With Industry Leaders to Accelerate Next-Generation IP Storage

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nimbus Data Systems, the leading innovator in IP storage systems, in partnership with Arastra, Force10 Networks, Fujitsu, Fulcrum Microsystems, Mellanox Technologies, Neterion, and NetXen, today announced the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Storage Alliance, an ecosystem of adapter, switch, and storage system developers united by a common goal: to increase awareness and enterprise deployments of 10 Gigabit Ethernet as the superior storage networking infrastructure for server virtualization and enterprise-wide storage consolidation given its proven interoperability, low cost, common management, and high performance.

“Adopting 10 Gigabit Ethernet for storage is a significant step in converging the data center onto a single interconnect standard and driving better cost efficiency and interconnectivity without sacrificing performance”

“As long expected, 10GbE is now a viable platform for high performance storage networking. As server, network, and storage virtualization transform the way we build and operate datacenter infrastructure, 10GbE will become the unifying and strategic network,” says Michael Peterson, President of Strategic Research Corporation. “I have to compliment Arastra, Force10 Networks, Fujitsu, Fulcrum Microsystems, Mellanox Technologies, Neterion, NetXen, and Nimbus Data Systems for their leadership in recognizing the importance of creating this alliance to help customers learn about the value of 10GbE in their environments.”

10GbE Advantages for Storage Networking

With 10 Gigabit Ethernet, enterprises can:

Reduce storage network infrastructure cost by 30-75% compared to 4Gb Fibre Channel
Reduce storage costs by 50% by combining block and file-level services (SAN and NAS) onto one network
Simplify IT administration through uniform management across the LAN, WAN, and storage network
Increase bandwidth by 2.5 times as compared to 4Gb Fibre Channel while minimizing latency
Capitalize on multi-vendor interoperability of 10GbE switches, adapters, and storage devices
Support today’s iSCSI, NFS, CIFS, and emerging protocols like FCoE, iSER, and iWARP, on one network
Deploy disaster recovery affordably by extending the storage network to the WAN without FC gateways
Reduce software licensing costs by leveraging multi-pathing built-in to 10GbE adapters

“10 Gigabit Ethernet brings versatility and simplicity to enterprises of all sizes through network consolidation, familiar management, more bandwidth without trunking, and multi-vendor interoperability,” stated Thomas Isakovich, founder and CEO of Nimbus Data Systems. “With 10 Gigabit Ethernet now available for less than half the cost per gigabit of even traditional Gigabit Ethernet, all of the necessary elements are in place for immediate enterprise deployments.”

Learn More and Join the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Storage Alliance

10 Gigabit Ethernet vendors and system integrators are encouraged to join the Alliance to highlight their unique solutions for this rapidly growing market, which will reach $4 billion by 2010 according to Dell 'Oro Group. In joining the Alliance, partners will help foster interoperability with other leading 10 Gigabit Ethernet components and provide a forum for multi-vendor cooperation to developing turn-key 10 Gigabit Ethernet storage solutions. To learn more about joining the Alliance, email info@10gbestoragealliance.org.

Arastra

“Arastra is pleased to join the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Storage Alliance,” said Mansour Karam, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Arastra, Inc. “With industry-leading port density, 1U form factor, non-blocking performance, high power efficiency, and low TCO, Arastra's 7100 Series 10GigE DataCenter Ethernet switches are ideal for storage applications.”

Force10 Networks

“Standardizing on Ethernet technology across the data center promises to deliver increased operational efficiency, and at the storage level, that means the transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet,” said Stephen Garrison, vice president of marketing at Force10 Networks. “As part of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Storage Alliance, Force10 has demonstrated interoperability between its high performance S2410 switches and Nimbus’ unified IP storage systems to ensure customers have the reliable infrastructure they need to consolidate and improve the efficiency of their data centers.”

Fujitsu Computer Products

“Fujitsu is pleased to work with a pioneering company like Nimbus Data Systems as part of the 10GbE storage ecosystem to deliver the first-class storage performance that the market needs,” said Vic Herring, senior director, New Products Group, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. “Fujitsu’s XG family of switches have gained a tremendous amount of momentum with customers in the storage arena and are a perfect match for high-performance storage networking due to their low latency, jumbo frame support, and compact 1U form factor.”

Fulcrum Microsystems

“Adopting 10 Gigabit Ethernet for storage is a significant step in converging the data center onto a single interconnect standard and driving better cost efficiency and interconnectivity without sacrificing performance,” said Mike Zeile, VP of marketing for Fulcrum Microsystems. “We've seen great storage networks built with our FocalPoint low latency 10-Gigabit Ethernet switch family and feel that Nimbus’ work in establishing the Alliance will be significant in the ongoing evolution of Ethernet as a data center fabric technology. We're happy to support it.”

Mellanox Technologies

“Mellanox is pleased to be a part of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Storage Alliance,” said TA Ramanujam, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox's ConnectX EN 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters deliver industry-leading performance, a rich set of QoS and virtualization acceleration features, and are optimized for data center I/O convergence of networking and storage fabrics.”

Neterion

“Neterion is pleased to participate in the 10 Gigabit Ethernet Storage Alliance program to enable enterprise IT, focused on consolidation and virtualization, deploy end-to-end 10GbE solutions,” said Ravi Chalaka, Vice President of Marketing at Neterion, a long-term technology partner of Nimbus. “Nimbus Breeze multi-protocol IP storage systems deployed in environments with Neterion’s industry-leading 10GbE adapters will enable IT managers to virtualize more applications per physical server and realize drastic cost reductions.”

NetXen

“We are pleased to be teaming with Nimbus to accelerate the adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet storage solutions in the datacenter,” said Vikram Karvat, senior director of marketing at NetXen. “Enterprise customers see clear advantages in unifying networking and storage on an all IP network but cannot get there with 1GbE technology. NetXen’s 10GbE Intelligent NIC adapters provide the bandwidth and extensive offload capabilities that are required to eliminate I/O bottlenecks and simplify the enterprise datacenter network.”

About Nimbus

Nimbus Data Systems, Inc. develops innovative IP storage systems and software that help enterprises meet the challenges of rising datacenter costs, increased dependence on non-stop IT operations, and ambitious server consolidation programs. Nimbus’ state-of-the-art Breeze multi-protocol IP storage systems, featuring Nimbus’ powerful HALO storage operating system, provide an ideal storage infrastructure for midsize enterprises focused on storage consolidation, server virtualization, and rich content storage. With over 10,000 installations worldwide, Nimbus’ MySAN software is the world’s most popular iSCSI target for Microsoft Windows servers. Founded in 2003 and based in San Francisco, California, Nimbus is privately-financed and distributes its products through a worldwide network of integration and OEM partners. For more information, visit http://www.nimbusdata.com.