JVC, Crossroads Partner on Fibre Channel
For the last few years, SANs based on Fibre Channel technology have been touted as a fast, efficient alternative to conventional SCSI- or LAN-based storage and backup models. Fibre Channel, based on a set of open ANSI standards, runs at up to a gigabit per second and breaks SCSI barriers in both speed and number of simultaneous users. Designed for low-latency SANs, Fibre Channel offers superior speed and performance. Fibre Channel connections can span up to 10,000 meters -- more than six miles -- allowing servers and storage devices in widely dispersed sites to participate in the SAN, thus eliminating the need to build a wide area network.
Now SANs are coming into their own, as significant numbers of users begin to adopt them. The heightened interest is driving product and partnership announcements, which now appear almost daily.
In an announcement made on June 27, JVC Digital Storage Systems Division, a provider of host attached, network attached storage (NAS), storage area network (SAN) and CD/DVD-based library systems, revealed that it has entered a strategic partnership with Crossroads Systems to develop a Fibre Channel-based JVC DVD-RAM Library storage solution. Crossroads offers storage routers that provide multi-protocol connectivity to Fibre Channel SANs for a range of devices, including servers, mainframes, and disk and tape storage systems. Crossroads' storage routers provide Fibre Channel connectivity to library products within SANs, making possible advanced data storage solutions such as LAN-free backup.
Under terms of the new agreement, Crossroads will provide JVC with the Crossroads 4250 storage router for the JVC MC-7000 DVD-RAM Library storage solution. Rick Luttrall, Crossroads' Director of Product Management, said the partnership opens "a new chapter in SAN storage evolution by providing bi-directional connectivity to cost-effective DVD-RAM-based storage solutions."
JVC Library Systems are offered in 100-, 200-, and 600-disc configurations. They provide terabyte-level capacity, CD and/or DVD recording, direct-to-disc labeling and offer an internal "clean room" operating environment. Features include 50-disc removable magazines; CD-ROM/-R and DVD-ROM/-RAM drives; color disc printer; up to three independent SCSI buses; LED and front control buttons; Mail Slot for importing/exporting discs; custom trays for "no media contact"; local/remote diagnostics; and JVC re-engineered drives for high MTBF.