INDUSTRY

InoStor Corp, a Tandberg Data Company, outlined how its revolutionary RAIDn data protection technology will deliver the same high levels of data availability, reliability and capacity as the most costly RAID schemes -- but at an affordable price. RAIDn is a software library with a set of patented algorithms that implement a parity scheme across an array of disk drives to provide data protection against random, multiple drive failures. InoStor has embedded its revolutionary RAIDn technology in the company's new line of Linux-based network attached storage (NAS) appliances that are shipping now. RAIDn technology is also available for licensing, and InoStor is in active discussions with potential licensees with the expectation that versions of RAIDn will soon be implemented in other leading operating systems and hardware devices. As the number of drives grows to accommodate expanding data requirements, the odds of multiple disk failures also grows. Unfortunately, storage needs are also outpacing budget allocations, resulting in a proliferation of less expensive, less reliable SATA disk drives, which compounds the threat of even more failures. "By configuring an extra drive RAIDn provides greater protection than RAID 10 or RAID 5," explained David Licosati, InoStor's vice president of business development. "Without mirroring, administrators can add three inexpensive disk drives using RAIDn and obtain the same reliability as RAID 5+1, today's best high-availability -- and most expensive -- storage scheme. Moreover, administrators can increase the drive protection level on a drive-for-drive basis by defining each new drive as additional redundancy. It's RAID to the nth degree, and we envision RAIDn becoming an industry standard." Currently, enterprise-level end users are forced to accept so-called compound RAID solutions (such as mirrored RAID 1+0 and RAID 5+1) to achieve higher levels of drive protection. At minimum, these approaches double the drive cost for net storage capacity while offering limited data protection. A typical RAID 5+1 configuration requires 10 drives to protect data stored on just four drives -- a 40 percent utilization rate. RAIDn delivers the same level of protection and data capacity with just seven drives. This increases the utilization rate over 57 percent while saving 30 percent in space. If all 10 drives are retained, RAIDn increases capacity to seven drives, a 70 percent utilization rate for the same drive price. "Many administrators are under the illusion that adding a hot spare will protect their data if a hard disk fails," Licosati noted. "What manufacturers don't tell them is if another disk drive fails while the hot spare is rebuilding, the data will be lost." As drive capacities grow, so does the time required to rebuild the data and restore data protection. This expands the window of vulnerability where critical data is at risk during the rebuild process. RAIDn significantly reduces this vulnerability by maintaining data integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures. Additionally, when replacing failed drives or adding new drives administrators can determine drive allocation for increased capacity or added availability. Multiple drives can be replaced simultaneously allowing administrators to rebuild several defective disk drives without interrupting operations or restricting access to the data. In short, RAIDn allows companies to deploy solutions with greater security, reliability, capacity and affordability than conventional RAID 5, hybrid and "hot spare" configurations.