Sanrad Unveils V-Switch 3400

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- SANRAD Incorporated, a leading supplier of SAN connectivity and data management, announced today the V-Switch 3400 with embedded StoragePro software and iSCSI to Fibre Channel(FC) protocol conversion. The latest addition to SANRAD's product line allows customers to easily and cost effectively attach and manage hundreds of servers to existing FC SANs. Using iSCSI and embedded data management services, customers can extend the inherent benefits of that FC SAN across the data center and fully utilize storage capacity.

Traditionally, within the data center, the vast majority of servers are "rogue" servers -- stranded servers not attached to an FC SAN. The benefits of connecting these servers to an FC SAN are substantial: all storage capacity is shared and cost efficiently utilized, data is centralized for easier backup and recovery, and server maintenance and replacement is simplified.

"One of the early promises of iSCSI was to bring stranded servers to the SAN. But most IT organizations couldn't cost justify using expensive FC to attach commodity servers to the SAN," said Tony Asaro, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "With iSCSI you minimize the cost and complexity of adding commodity servers to the SAN. This is a concept we refer to as SAN Inclusion -- including stranded servers onto the SAN using iSCSI. The SANRAD V-Switch 3400 directly supports this need and enables customers to easily attach to and take advantage of their existing FC storage systems."

The V-Switch 3400 allows customers to capitalize on existing untapped SAN capacity and investments to greatly improve SAN return on investment. By consolidating hundreds of "stranded" servers onto a single FC SAN solution, organizations reduce operating, management and infrastructure costs by 50 percent. The V-Switch 3400 also takes advantage of free iSCSI software and low-cost IP networks to connect servers to the SAN thru the V-Switch at 1/10th the cost of traditional fibre channel. It eliminates laborious backup and recovery tasks on individual servers and provides LAN-free and server-free backup so customers can migrate or duplicate data without any server interruption. Like previous V-Switch solutions, the 3400 also provides remote replication, disaster recovery and site replication services.

"The new V-Switch 3400 addresses the under-utilization phenomenon we are seeing across customer's data centers," said Dave DuPont, senior vice president at SANRAD. "SANRAD's product aims to benefit those who have excess storage capacity within their FC SAN by allowing them to connect more servers to that SAN without additional investments. Through leveraging an existing storage and network infrastructure, customers can save more than 90 percent of the cost of existing FC SAN connectivity and management solutions."Sanrad Inc.