LSI, Seagate join forces on PCIe storage solutions

LSI Corp. and Seagate Technology come together to deliver robust, PCIe-based solid-state storage (SSS) solutions for data centre and cloud computing environments. Through this joint effort, LSI is expected to deliver board-level products that integrate LSI SAS and PCIe technology with Seagate solid-state drive (SSD) technology. The products are designed to provide enterprise OEMs and channel partners with new levels of performance, reliability and ease of use while addressing architectural challenges that have limited SSS adoption. Product samples are expected to be available to OEM customers in the second quarter of this year.

"LSI is uniquely positioned to execute a broad solid-state storage strategy," said Jeff Richardson, executive VP and general manager, semiconductor solutions group, LSI. "We're already deeply engaged in delivering solid-state storage technologies, from custom silicon to storage systems. Entering the emerging PCIe-based SSS market segment is a natural extension of our core competencies. By building upon the industry's most widely deployed SAS software stack, OEMs and system builders will gain a proven, lower-risk path to market and continuity across technology generations."

"IT professionals want server and storage solutions that can deliver the performance and efficiency benefits of solid-state technology without impacting system resources or further complicating already complex enterprise storage environments," said David Mosley, executive VP sales, marketing, and product line management, Seagate. "These new LSI products will accelerate enterprise application processing and help reduce I/O latency by using standards-based interfaces and protocols to minimise the impact to existing end user enterprise infrastructures. The collaboration extends Seagate's enterprise solid-state strategy, which is focused on delivering the best-fit solutions for IT using both traditional hard disk drives and solid-state storage."

Market research firm IDC forecasts that SSD revenue in the enterprise segment will reach Rs.9,235.40 crore ($2 billion) by 2013. PCIe-based solutions will constitute a significant portion of this growing market segment due to their ability to further boost performance, reliability and ease of use within an existing IT infrastructure.

"Solid-state drives remain in the spotlight as a technology and an area of growth in the storage market," said Jeff Janukowicz, research manager, hard disk drive components and solid-state drives at IDC. "Future market requirements related to price per gigabyte, performance, power consumption and reliability align well with the benefits of solid-state storage, and PCIe-based SSS solutions are poised to meet these requirements in data centre environments where higher performance is at a premium."

LSI and Seagate bring decades of enterprise-level experience in the design, manufacture and support of storage products for critical applications. Having two experienced leaders with proven engineering capabilities and the global scale to commit resources towards the development of PCIe-based SSS solutions will help pave the way to market maturity and broad enterprise adoption.