Friday, September 11, 2009

DataDirect Packs 1.2 Petabytes Into One Rack

Chatsworth-based DataDirect Networks, a developer of storage systems, is pushing the limits of density for storage systems, saying earlier this week that it rolled out a new system which packs 1.2 petabytes of disk capacity into a single rack. The high density storage system is leveraging 2 terabyte, SATA hard drives to reach the new density level. The firm's system houses 60 drives in a 4U enclosure, with multiple enclosures in a rack. The firm said its S2A9900, S2A9700, and SFA10000 systems now can handle up to 2.4 petabytes of storage. Other features of the new system are "partial rebuild" technology to get disk drives back up after a failure: the firm said that due to use of full 2TB drives, rebuilds can take as much as 2 days or more after a failure. 1.2 petabytes is just under the capacity which was being used by Facebook for all of its 15 billion photos in April, which totaled 1.5 petabytes.

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