One-stop shopping for the channel

Adaptec (NASDAQ: ADPT) has launched the Adaptec RAID Series 5 Unified Serial controller family, an offering the vendor claims is the first RAID solution offering up to 28-port connectivity with both internal and external ports to achieve I/O performance up to five times faster than competitive products.

The Series 5 controllers are engineered to deliver cost-effective solutions for increasing data storage access and scalability, allowing up to 256 SATA or SAS drives to be connected to a single system providing approximately 200TB of storage capacity. The new PCIe interface controllers are designed for a wide range of storage-critical, bandwidth-intensive applications such as Web hosting, digital video surveillance, medical imaging and communications, says the vendor.

“It’s important for resellers because they can’t be juggling multiple products from different vendors,” said Robert Cox, a senior marketing manager with Adaptec. “There’s a real desire for one-stop shopping and being able to get everything from one vendor, that’s what we’re doing here.”

Noting the market is transitioning from port to serial technology, Cox says Adaptec offers a single architecture for SATA and SAS drives that is ideal for bandwidth-intensive applications.

Building on Adaptec’s Unified Serial Architecture platform, Adaptec says the RAID Series 5 family’s unique design of up to 28 ports — 24 internal and four external — allows enterprise data storage solutions to take advantage of low cost SATA environments while delivering SAS performance and reliability.

The vendor adds the flexibility enabled by the multi-port design allows system integrators and OEMs to create tiered storage environments that ensure massive scalability while simultaneously simplifying the development and validation process. It also allows system resellers to easily sell-up or sell-down by tailoring storage solutions based on individual application requirements. And, it enables enterprise customers to ‘future-proof’ today’s system expenditures with the knowledge that as data capacity demands grow, additional storage hardware can be effortlessly added or swapped.

“Businesses are looking for solutions that can give them higher performance and designs that can grow,” said Cox.

Brian Babineau, a senior analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group, says enterprises need technology environments that can adapt to the ever-changing profile of data being created and stored on a regular basis. While today it’s database transactions and Web files, tomorrow it will be medical images and streaming video content.

“Customers need flexible, modular, high performing storage environments as rich media and file content represent the preponderance of capacity that will be deployed in coming years,” said Babineau. “Adaptec, which has long been known for its ability to stay one step ahead of evolving market dynamics, is particularly suited to address this need. The new Series 5 RAID controllers meet these needs with compatibility that makes it easy for anyone to deploy, in any environment.”

Adaptec is a 100 per cent channel company, and Cox says ecosystem partners and compatibility are very important to the vendor. The company has a two-tier channel model and goes to market through distributors. In Canada, Adaptec works with Ingram Micro and Tech Data.

“I think we are satisfied with our strategy right now,” said Cox, adding Adaptec wants to help its resellers grow their businesses. “We’re seeing a lot of benefits from the ecosystem partnering and championing we’re done. Reports show that we’re building market share.”

Currently, he says Adaptec’s primary vertical focuses are video surveillance, Web hosting, imaging and communications.

-With files from Channelworld India staff

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Jeff Jedras
Jeff Jedras
A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate. He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN. His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.

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