StoneFusion / StoneFly IP SANs

StoneFly, a subsidiary of of Dynamic Network Factory (DNF), serves a line of hardware products that enable IP-based SAN storage in entry- to Enterprise-level networks. Various products are available from self-contained "IP SAN-in-a-box" offerings for SMBs to modular offerings targeted to tiered-storage Enterprise deployments.

At the core of and driving each of the products is the vendor's StoneFusion Network Storage Platform, which employs virtualization techniques to consolidate physical disks and make them available as virtually managed and accessed volumes to network host computers via iSCSI communications. Additional features supported by the platform (availability depends on the hardware model) of the core platform include active/active clustering, snapshots, integration with backup software (via Backup Agents), synchronous and asynchronous replication, and AES 256-bit encryption.

Three primary IP SAN hardware lines are available from the vendor.

The Integrated Storage Concentrators (ISCs) are 1, 2, 3, or 4U "SAN-in-a-box" products targeted to entry-level deployments. The rack-mountable enclosures support SAS, SATA, or TED (a "hybrid" drive combining both magnetic media and random access memory offered by the vendor's parent company) drives up to 24 TB in a single chassis. Features include 2 or 4 GB of cache, support for 3 to 6 Gig Ethernet ports (1 or 2 10 Gb ports are optional), support for RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, and 60, and redundant power supplies. Features are model specific; see the vendor's site for details.

The Hybrid Storage Concentrators (HSCs) are similar to the ISCs, but are served in a 3U rackmount chassis with up to 16 TB per chassis (SAS drives are not supported). Five GigE ports are included in the model, with 1 or 2 10 gig ports optional. The HSCs also add support for active/active pairs and clustering-plus-mirroring technology.

At the top of the line are the vendor's modular OptiSAN components, including 5U base systems boasting dual (active/active) RAID controllers, up to 16 SAS/SATA drives, support for RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60 and JBOD, and redundant/hot-swappable cooling and power; and 3U expansion arrays (up to 256 drives supported per system) each including 16 drives and their own redundant power supplies.

Also available from the vendor are the StoneFlex NAS Gateways; Windows-based, diskless (they boot from the IP SAN itself) 1U boxes that provide file-based access to the StoneFly IP SANs. The StoneFlex NAS Gateways are initially offered in three flavors (the top of the line model supporting clustering of up to eight nodes), are based on Windows Storage Server, and feature StoneFly VSS agents (integrated with Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service) and support for Microsoft MPIO. Dual Gig Ethernet ports are standard on each of the models, with 10 Gb connections optional.

New from the vendor are S-Class ISC boxes, one for each of the four available ISC models, that support the use of SAS drives. Additionally, the ISC boxes now support up to 6 gig Ethernet ports depending on model (formerly, only 2 were supported) and up to 2 optional 10 Gig ports (formerly only 1 was optionally offered).

The StoneFly product line is available now, with pricing starting at $8,400 for the new S-Class ISC models.

Contact the vendor for further information.