Four DataDirect Networks Appliances Demonstrate Storage Area Network
Benefits to 3.5 Billion People Around the World
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- On the evening of February 8, 2002,
nearly 3.5 billion people around the world watched in astonishment as a
NASA/Space Imaging Zoom took viewers from outer space directly into the
opening ceremony of the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games. And the first
surprising glimpse was powered, in part, by storage networking appliances,
called Silicon Storage Appliances, from Los Angeles-based DataDirect Networks.
DataDirect Networks has four Silicon Storage Appliances deployed at the
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center to distribute and accelerate satellite
imaging and data analysis information from MODIS, one of the instruments used
to create the astonishing Space Imaging Zoom into the opening ceremonies. And
this demonstration of spectacular imaging was the first exposure that many
have had to the power and benefits storage networking can provide.
As a storage networking company that creates highly scalable, simple to
deploy and easy-to-manage solutions for business, broadcasting and government,
DataDirect has always excelled in the demanding imaging, simulation and
visualization environments required by governmental agencies -- and the
content-rich environments surrounding TV broadcasting.
"Storage Area Networks based upon Silicon Storage Appliances enable best
of breed, real-time solutions that can entertain, educate and enrich people
around the world," Alex Bouzari, chief executive officer, DataDirect Networks,
said. "The work done by NASA - Goddard is truly spectacular, and it
illustrates that using Silicon Storage Appliances as the intelligent
infrastructure for networks handling content-rich information brings
compelling benefits to a wide range of applications, from high performance
computing to broadcasting facilities, and everything in between."
The development of NASA's Olympic Space Imaging Zoom
( http://olympics.gsfc.nasa.gov/olympiczoom.mpeg ) has roots in important
scientific research. In the path from the vacuum of outer space to the
billions of people around the world, the computer science expertise necessary
to assemble the scene demands powerful hardware, world-class software, and in
NASA's words, lots of know-how. Images like this illustrate the power of
remote sensing, the ability of scientists to gain perspective on their subject
and make measurements from a distance.
The story begins in space. Orbiting 438 miles above the earth is Terra, a
$1.3 billion school bus-size satellite carrying a detection instrument called
MODIS, the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer. Scanning the earth,
MODIS takes the pulse of the planet, watching atmosphere, oceanic and
terrestrial changes, and relays this information to ground stations in the
United States. Data from these sweeps are transmitted down to NASA Goddard
for processing and analysis.
Once on the ground, the information is then moved from disk and tape into
a mixed data center environment of comprised of Linux, SGI Origin and Sun
servers, DataDirect Silicon Storage Appliances and storage. Together, the
four Silicon Storage Appliances manage 1.5 TB of data moving through the
network and out to servers and workgroups each day, with an overall storage
environment of almost 200 Terabytes of data.
The Imaging Zoom was done by the NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio. Members of the NASA team on-site in Utah
reported hearing cheers going through the opening ceremony crowd as attendees
realized that the zoom was going right to the stadium.
Accelerating Real-Time Applications, Enabling Results with Appliances
DataDirect Networks has created highly scalable, simple-to-deploy and
easy-to-manage Silicon Storage Appliances to accelerate application
performance, simplify information management, and lower operating costs.
The Silicon Storage Appliance serves at the core of the storage network,
bringing unbeatable and guaranteed bandwidth to the production environment.
It brings unique superior virtualization and parallelism benefits to
broadcasters, and provides unmatched advantages to the production environment.
For broadcasters and creative professionals needing high stream count, rock
solid audio and video streams, storage and host scalability, and simplified
management, DataDirect Networks presents a storage networking technology that
sets new standards in application acceleration and plug and play simplicity.
With each appliance's ability to supply over 6000 hours of 50Mbit/sec
MPEG2@ML content to 90 concurrent streams per appliance, the Silicon Storage
Appliance brings performance and scalability benefits to real-time
broadcasting and production environments. DataDirect's "format independence"
guarantees scaling of capacity and streams from highly-compressed all the way
to HD and beyond.
Silicon Storage Appliances overcome the many limitations of first
generation storage networks, bringing application acceleration with high QoS.
Directly supporting up to 512 workstations and 180 Terabytes of storage,
DataDirect's technology can simultaneously support a multitude of ingest, NLE,
CG, playout and browse stations. DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage
Appliance technology allows creative professionals to accelerate their
applications, providing data at least three times faster than existing Storage
Area Networking (SAN) solutions and ten times faster than Network Attached
Storage (NAS) technology. The acceleration of data to applications and
users -- simply and easily -- allows DataDirect Networks' customers to
consolidate their storage; the Silicon Storage Appliance technology allows
management of up to 100 Terabytes by a single system administrator, providing
10x lower Total Cost of Ownership.
Customers using DataDirect's Silicon Storage Appliances include the
British Broadcasting Company, Star TV, CineGroupe, Loudeye, NASA, National
Center for Atmospheric Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories,
NOAA Forecast Systems Lab, U.S. Army Research Lab, White Sands Missile Range,
National Century Financial Enterprises, Sandia National Laboratories, and
Sonic Foundry, among others. DataDirect SAN partnerships include industry
leaders VERITAS, Seagate, Emulex, and QLogic, among others.
About DataDirect Networks, Inc.
DataDirect Networks is the leader in the rapidly growing market for
intelligent storage networking appliances. Serving IT professionals in the
scientific, government, defense, broadcasting, digital production, and oil and
gas industries, DataDirect Networks' Silicon Storage Appliances make it easy,
simple and trouble-free to accelerate and manage applications, dramatically
reducing TCO and increasing ROI. For more information, contact DataDirect
Networks at (818) 700-7600 or visit http://www.datadirectnet.com .
Silicon Storage Appliance is a trademark of DataDirect Networks, Inc.
(C) 2002 DataDirect Networks, Inc. All other names are property of their
respective owners.
For further information please contact Jim Hughes of DataDirect Networks
Inc., +1-818-700-7655, jhughes@datadirectnet.com.
SOURCE DataDirect Networks Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.datadirectnet.com
CONTACT:
Jim Hughes of DataDirect Networks Inc.,
+1-818-700-7655, jhughes@datadirectnet.com
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