Spectra Logic has unveiled a new NAS disk platform designed to provide high-density bulk storage for reliable, high-capacity digital preservation, at costs as low as AU15 cents per gigabyte raw.

The new Spectra Verde DPE (Digital Preservation Enterprise) appliance utilises a new technology for disk storage known as Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR)

Conventional hard disk drives record data by writing non-overlapping magnetic tracks parallel to each other, while shingled recording writes new tracks that overlap part of the previously written magnetic track, leaving the previous track thinner and allowing for higher track density. Thus, the tracks partially overlap similar to roof shingles.

With SMR technology and Spectra’s implementation of ZFS software RAID, the Verde DPE appliance is claimed to provide unmatched data integrity with RAID Z3 triple parity, automatic rebuild to global spare drives, continuous data checksum, and asynchronous replication.

“The Verde, which we tested in DeepStorage Labs, performed well with the sequential workloads it was designed for. Verde DPE improves on the original Verde, boosting performance with cache while retaining the Verde virtues of high data reliability and the very affordable cost of just 9 cents per GB,” said DeepStorage Founder and Chief Scientist, Howard Marks. “We view Verde DPE as a top choice for those workloads.”

Key Features of Spectra Verde DPE include:

• Digital preservation for enterprise as low as AU15C/GB raw
• Expandable to 7.4 PB raw in a single rack
• Triple-parity RAID Z3 with continuous data checksum, pushing probability of data loss to 1 in over 2 million years when properly monitored and maintained
• CIFS and NFS interfaces included; NFS acceleration kit available as an option
• 1 GB per second in bulk storage applications

“Verde DPE is built for bulk storage and archive of large, unstructured files,” said Spectra Logic Chief Technology Officer, Matt Starr.

“Combined with our proven tape solutions, you have a genetically diverse media set that protects your digital assets. We think of our newest product as the next step in the evolution of digital preservation.”

For more information about Verde DPE, visit www.spectralogic.com/dpe.