Ultraspeed makes hard disk redundant

The platform uses a storage area network, or SA, to provide the operating system, apps and data storage, says Ultraspeed. According to the company, the single biggest cause of an individual server's failure is a defective hard disk, which Ultraspeed hopes to eliminate with its DSS platform.

The servers boot from the storage area network from gigabit Ethernet connections - all of the data is continually replicated across the storage network, and if a single SAN hard disk fails, it gets swapped out and a replacement gets filled with all the lost data.

Supposedly the DSS technology can run 100,000 disk operations per second, in contrast to an average fibre channel local disk based server, which can handle about 270, according to Ultraspeed.

"DSS was born out of personal frustration with hard disk failure and lengthy backup restoration procedures," said Ultraspeed technical director Michael Shanks. "It didn't seem right that our clients, and their customers, should be at the mercy of one failed component that bring their business grinding to a halt."

A few companies have adopted the technology already, including 2View Group which provides viewlondon.co.uk, and brokerage blokes Primose Mortgage Processing.

You can check out the Ultraspeed site here. µ