sTec Announces Worldwide Availability of s3000 Solid-State Storage Appliance

New Highly Scalable s3000 Brings sTec SSD Performance, Reliability, Endurance to NexentaStor, Windows Environments

SINGAPORE, June 18, 2013 -- sTec, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEC), a leading global provider of solid-state storage solutions, today announced worldwide availability of its recently introduced sTec(R) s3000 storage appliance. The s3000 combines the performance, reliability and endurance of sTec's industry-leading solid-state drive (SSD) technology with the two foremost enterprise-storage operating systems -- NexentaStor from Nexenta Systems, and Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2012 -- to provide storage clustering, virtualization and management features within a unified, cost-effective hardware configuration.

With up to 96 terabytes (TB) of solid-state storage per appliance, the s3000 is a significant addition to sTec's solid-state storage product portfolio of enterprise SSD drives and caching software that are among the top performing in the industry. Furthermore, the s3000 demonstrates sTec's commitment to providing an expansive range of tailored solid-state storage solutions, directly to the enterprise or through the company's growing global partner program.

"As a provider of world-class SSD solutions, we discovered a significant opportunity in the Asia Pacific markets for an sTec-developed appliance that blends the power and performance of sTec SSDs with the capabilities and widespread deployment of software-defined storage operating systems," said Michael Burnie, senior vice president of sales for Asia Pacific and Japan, sTec.

"A driving factor in this fastest-growing storage market in the world is the proliferation of and reliance on mobile devices. There is a pressing need for storage systems to tackle the deluge of user-generated content on mobile platforms. At sTec, we understand the needs of our customers addressing such storage challenges and the s3000 provides best-in-class technology that delivers a unique, easy-to-use storage solution tailored to tackle the high-performance needs of customers' IO-intensive applications."

"The s3000 reflects a dramatic shift in enterprise systems in that its cost-effectiveness, scalability and expandability to several hundreds of terabytes flash storage are paramount requirements of today's IT managers," said Evan Powell, chief strategy officer, Nexenta Systems.

"Further, its ability to fit seamlessly into NexentaStor environments means the s3000 can be deployed quickly and take full advantage of the storage and data management features of our software."

As with all sTec solid-state storage solutions, the s3000 is architected for enterprise-class storage, enabling it to address the critical-data requirements of industries such as oil and gas, government, telecommunications, and cloud computing. With a large in-house team of storage, application and data center experts, sTec is able to work directly with customers to develop ideal approaches for tailoring their data centers to optimally incorporate the s3000 along with its other SSD solutions.

With performance as high as 1.2 million IOs per second (IOPS) and featuring sTec Serial Attached Storage (SAS) SSDs with up to twice the endurance of competing drives, the s3000 harnesses the power of sTec SSD technology to reduce application execution time and increase real-time access to high-demand, shared assets. By building the s3000 around NexentaStor and Windows Storage Server 2012, sTec is bringing to market a high-performance storage appliance that can be integrated with existing storage systems, enhance traditional file-serving capabilities, and extend hypervisors such as Hyper-V and file-based storage for application workloads such as, SQL Server and SharePoint.

The s3000 is particularly applicable in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments and those requiring performance-intensive I/O deployments to achieve higher virtualization consolidation factors.

The s3000 provides continuous availability and full redundancy through NexentaStor and Windows Server 2012 Storage Spaces environments, and enables hot-swapping of drives and power supplies. It offers flexible, unified storage and data reduction through de-duplication and thin provisioning. Additionally, the s3000 is highly scalable; it can be configured with one or two 19-inch rack-mountable drive shelves, each accommodating as many as 24 SSDs, and can scale up to eight full interconnected appliances for a total of 768 TB of solid-state storage.

WD IS BUILDING BETTER HARD DRIVES FOR THE NEW PC AND CLOUD COMPUTING ERA

Company Launches New Products, Demonstrates Future Capabilities at Computex Taipei 2013

Kuala Lumpur – 11 June 2013 – During a press event in Taipei on 3rd June, WD®, a Western Digital company, shared its vision for the role hard drives play in the future of personal computing. Spokespersons Matt Rutledge, vice president and general manager, client computing, and Pat Wilkison, cloud products, announced two new products and described the company’s innovations in the areas of thin-and-light PC storage, solid-state hybrid drives and data center storage – all of which being a focus of WD innovation during today’s changing PC landscape and relentless global data growth.

According to WD, the PC is undergoing a transformation in form factor and feature sets, contributing to an evolving disaggregated storage model. Leading manufacturers are driving new, compelling products for consumers who are quickly adapting to the mobile advantages of smartphones and tablets, yet whose data collection and content creation habits demand the capacity of traditional hard drives. Additionally, the cornerstone of the disaggregated model is cloud datacenter, where the immense capacity that only hard drives can serve is required.

Rutledge demonstrated how hard drives could be designed in the future to enable affordable high-capacity storage in tablets and other always-on, ultra-portable and low-profile computing devices by utilizing special free-fall and shock sensors; robust mechanics; miniaturized electronics; and software intelligence that manages the use of NAND for data buffering and uninterrupted content experiences for consumers.

The company’s 5 mm thick, 2.5-inch WD Black™ SSHD is now being evaluated by OEM customers, who, with that technology, can design ultra-thin notebooks and other low-profile devices with as much as 500 GB of storage, yet for a fraction of the cost of an SSD.

WD introduced the world’s thinnest 1 TB hard drive with its new 2.5-inch WD Blue™ 7 mm hard drive, which offers OEMs, channel integrators and consumers a unique storage solution for thin and light systems, slimmer notebooks, as well as compatibility with the industry-standard 9.5 mm drive slots of mainstream notebooks.

Wilkison presented the evolving model for cloud datacenters, which are providing massive, scale-out service for social media sites, content services for mobile devices and commercial cloud storage. He outlined the tiered building blocks of today’s datacenters, dominated by the highest capacity, most reliable hard drives to facilitate annual data growth of more than 30 percent; as well as WD's series of high-capacity and high-performance drives and where they fit in the datacenter ecosystem.

The company unveiled the first enterprise-class hard drives for scale-out datacenter market, the WD Se family of drives. Built on an enterprise-grade platform for reliable 24x7x365 datacenter operation, WD Se is tailored to deliver the right combination of performance, reliability and robustness for large-scale replicated environments, mid-sized network attached storage (NAS) deployment, and backup/archiving applications.

SEAGATE DELIVERS ON SOLID STATE STRATEGY: UNVEILS COMPLETE SSD PRODUCT LINE

Company Unveils First Client SSD, Next-Generation Enterprise SSDs, and PCIe Accelerator Card 

MALAYSIA, June 6, 2013 —Seagate Technology, a worldwide leader in storage solutions, today announced its new portfolio of flash-memory solutions. The company took the wraps off its first client solid state drive (SSD) and its next-generation enterprise SSDs. Featuring the Seagate 600 SSD, Seagate 600 Pro SSD, and the Seagate 1200 SSD, the new line of drives are engineered to deliver ultra-fast speed and high data integrity. Rounding out the portfolio, Seagate also announced the new Seagate X8 Accelerator, a storage class memory PCIe card powered by Virident enabling the company to offer all key interfaces including SATA and SAS solutions.

“We are pleased to announce these new flash memory products. With these new drives, Seagate solidifies its commitment to the flash-based storage market by delivering enterprise SSDs and server-side solutions as well as client solutions,” said Gary Gentry, senior vice president and general manager of Seagate’s solid state drive business. “By adding more SSDs to our family of hard disk and solid state hybrid drives, we now have the broadest portfolio of storage products in the industry, delivering one-stop shopping for our customers and partners. And we’re just getting started. Seagate is committed to becoming a premier supplier of both solid state drives and storage class memory products. We have put in place a winning strategy for developing multiple high value, flash based products and solutions for our customers.”

Seagate 600 SSD: Faster Performance with 6Gb/s SATA
The ultimate laptop upgrade, the Seagate 600 SSD delivers faster boot up speeds, shorter application load times, and improved system responsiveness for the ultimate performance. Laptop users can boot up nearly four times faster and load applications more than two times faster than with a standard hard drive, greatly reducing the amount of wait time to access content.

“SSDs continue to be among the most popular product categories on Newegg.com as more consumers increasingly turn to them to deliver more speed, faster boot up times and superior performance,” said Patrick Chung, vice president of global product management at Newegg. “Seagate’s new line of SSDs, including the new 600 SSD, will be a great addition to our existing assortment. We’re excited to introduce the new SSDs to our customers and look forward to continuing our strategic partnership with Seagate.”

“Over the years, Seagate has been a valued partner contributing a vast array of storage solutions to our comprehensive selection of IT products,” says Lionel Garcia, vice president at Tiger Direct. “Seagate’s products are in high demand among our customers and we’re excited to add their new SSD to our assortment. As consumer demand for greater speed and shorter boot up times continues to rise, the new 600 SSD will provide customers with the ultimate performance they crave.”

Fast and as easy to install as a hard disk drive upgrade, the Seagate 600 SSD is available in multiple z-heights including an industry-first, diminutive 5mm-high drive making it ideal for most ultra-thin devices as well as standard laptop systems. The drive features up to 480GB of capacity and comes in a 2.5 form factor. It also incorporates a 6Gb/s SATA interface for fast data transfer rates and easy connection.

Seagate 600 Pro SSD—Fast Performance, Low Power with 6Gb/s SATA
A low power server and storage solution, the Seagate 600 Pro SSD is ideal for cloud system builders, hyperscale datacenters, cloud service providers, content delivery networks, and virtualized environments. An entry-level enterprise SATA SSD, the 600 Pro SSD combines fast performance and lower power delivering best-in-class performance efficiency and IOPS/watt value.

“By incorporating Seagate's SSD technology into our product offerings we are able to address customer demand for greater speed, short, consistent response times, and greater enclosure and power efficiencies,” said Paul Poynter, CTO Rorke Data, an Avnet business unit. “As we continue to drive PC innovation in today's markets, we look forward to integrating this enterprise SSD technology into our Rorke product line providing our discerning customers with the ultimate in performance and value.”

Engineered with efficiency in mind, the 600 Pro SSD features the industry’s highest IOPS/watt to improve system performance while reducing power and cooling costs for transaction-hungry datacenters and cloud enterprise applications. Utilizing 2.8 watts typical operating power, the drive reduces energy by automatically adjusting the power consumption to workload I/O levels— using less power for lighter workloads. The drive is also equipped with the intelligence to deliver high-data integrity, safeguarding against unexpected power loss and undetected corruption when a device is powered off.

The Seagate 600 Pro SSD is available with up to 480GB capacity and comes in 2.5-inch form factor. It is equipped with a 6Gb/s SATA interface for fast data transfer rates and easy connection to existing SATA infrastructure.

Seagate 1200 SSD— Ultra-Fast Speed, Consistent Performance with 12Gb/s SAS
Designed for demanding enterprise storage and server applications with complex, write-intensive mixed workloads, such as high-performance computing and data analytics, the Seagate 1200 SSD delivers the ultimate in speed, consistent performance and the highest levels of data integrity.

Built to deliver ultra-fast data access, the drive uses algorithms that optimize performance for frequently accessed data by prioritizing which storage operations, reads or writes, occur first and optimizing where it is stored. The result is improved performance to help close the gap between processor and data access.

It incorporates a dual port 12Gb/s SAS connector providing 100 percent faster interface speed, over previous generations, for twice the I/O bandwidth while ensuring the highest level of reliability, availability and scalability. The drive is also backwards compatible with 6Gb/s SAS environments.

The 1200 SSD leverages Seagate’s existing enterprise expertise and manufacturing excellence to deliver high levels of data integrity, manageability, testing and support. It also safeguards data against unexpected power loss and protects data from undetected, unintentional corruption.

Seagate X8 Accelerator— Application Performance Turbocharged
The Seagate X8 Accelerator, powered by Virident, delivers memory-class performance and storage-class capacity with enterprise reliability and data integrity in a single, low profile PCIe card. Providing industry-leading performance, with up to 1.1 million IOPS, the X8 Accelerator boosts server performance with ultra-fast speed that is up to 2X faster than the closest competitor and closer to DRAM performance than storage.
Boasting high storage capacity (up to 2.2TB) in a small footprint (HHHL half height half length) the X8 Accelerator fits in any server. The card’s x8 PCI Express Gen-2 interface enables it to deliver maximum application performance in database and virtualization applications such as Microsoft© SQL Server, Oracle Enterprise Server, MySQL, and VMware.

For more information on Seagate’s entire portfolio of flash memory products visit
http://seagate.com/www/ssd/.