Chelsio Communications announced its Unified Storage Router (USR-1100) appliance has been fully certified as an iSCSI-to-SAS bridging solution for Quantum's entry-level Scalar i40/i80 and mid-range Scalar i500 tape libraries.

This certification will enable Quantum resellers to offer high performance iSCSI SAN solutions to their customers using SAS-based tape libraries. The Chelsio USR-1100 appliance provides 10Gb iSCSI-to-FC and iSCSI-to-SAS bridging to both tape and disk storage, enabling enterprises with FC SAN storage and SAS-based targets to leverage IP networks and extend SAN advantages into smaller departments and locations, thus leveraging the numerous benefits of an IP-based solution. These benefits include lower costs, easier maintenance, and less infrastructure hardware.

"As the leading provider of open systems tape automation, Quantum continues to grow its base of connectivity options for its Scalar product line. Chelsio's USR appliance is great for customers wanting to leverage a Scalar tape library within their 10GbE IP SAN," said Peter Prinos, sr. director of global alliances for Quantum. "For SMB and midrange customers, the USR/Scalar solution enables the adoption of enterprise-class SAN tape attach without the cost or complexity of FC. And, for larger-enterprise business, IP SANs allow for network convergence or Ethernet tape attach at the edge."

Any iSCSI initiator can attach to the USR appliance, which supports full or partial iSCSI offload. The USR comes in a 1U form factor and is equipped with 2x 1GbE and 2x 10GbE ports, mapping to 2x FC or 2x SAS ports. Users can directly attach Quantum tape backup libraries to an iSCSI 10Gb Ethernet SAN with no degradation in transfer speed. The USR appliance can be deployed as a standalone or in High Availability applications via a dual blade configuration and real time replication, thus making it well suited for enterprise applications.

"The USR is an extremely useful iSCSI-to-FC and iSCSI-to-SAS gateway appliance for tape and disk applications, and the Quantum resellers should be able to expand their reach to new customers in cost-sensitive markets utilizing SAS-based tape libraries," said Kianoosh Naghshineh, president and CEO of Chelsio. "The proven success of Chelsio's TCP and full iSCSI offload technologies in the USR appliance makes it the right product for the SAS tape-to-iSCSI bridge segment. And with a rich roadmap of support for additional protocols such as FCoE, the USR solution is a future proof solution for Quantum customers."