Dot Hill Systems Offers AssuredSAN Data Protection Appliance

Dot Hill Systems, a provider of storage solutions and software for OEMs, open storage partners and system integrators, April 5 expanded its award-winning channel program with the introduction of its next-generation AssuredSAN disk-to-disk data protection appliances targeted at small to medium-size businesses.

The Dot Hill AssuredSAN 3000 Series, based on the company's new 3000 Series storage platform announced in February, features a suite of disaster recovery applications, including Dot Hill's new AssuredRemote remote replication software. List prices are expected to start at $20,200 for a dual-controller Fibre Channel system fully populated with 500GB SATA drives.

With embedded-in-the-array remote replication of snapshot volumes, AssuredRemote offloads backup operations from application servers by asynchronously copying and synchronizing data for up to 16 volumes simultaneously, directly between two AssuredSAN 3000R appliances via the local storage area network (SAN) or wide area networks (WANs). Replication can operate via the Fibre Channel ports and/or the iSCSI ports in the case of the dual-protocol AssuredSAN 3900 models and fully supports high-availability failover using dual controllers.

"Building on the success of Dot Hill's AssuredSAN 2000 Series, the addition of enhanced snapshot and AssuredRemote features to the new AssuredSAN 3000 Series helps to create a reliable disaster recovery solution at a competitive price point," said Paul Hickingbotham, solutions manager at U.K.-based storage distributor Hammer. The new 8Gb Fibre Channel connectivity and an option for multiprotocol Fibre Channel and iSCSI hosts within the same solution will also put this system at the forefront of the industry."

The combination of AssuredSnap snapshot, AssuredCopy volume copy and AssuredRemote functionality, together in the AssuredSAN 3000 line, helps enable Dot Hill channel partners deliver a complete disaster recovery offering for SMBs. The company argued this low-maintenance, cost-effective approach to remote data protection, recovery and migration reduces the burden of meeting modern data retention policies and compliance testing associated with government regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA acts.

"The response to our AssuredSAN launch in September was extremely positive," said David Zimmer, Dot Hill's vice president of worldwide channel sales and marketing. "Customers told us that they would like to see more data protection features such as AssuredSnap and AssuredCopy in future-generation products. The AssuredSAN 3000 Series is the result; by adding AssuredRemote to our new 8Gb Fibre Channel-based 3000 Series architecture, we're providing SMB customers with affordable, midrange-featured data protection appliances."