ATTO Technology FastStream SC 7500 User manual

ATTO Technology, Inc. www.attotech.com
Tech Brief - Affordable SAN Solution Rev 10-08
Tech Brief
ATTO FastStream™ SC 7500
Create an Affordable SAN for Content Creation Environments
In the content creation world there is a movement toward bigger and faster both with connectivity and file size. As High
Definition video production increases in an existing editing workflow, limitations of current storage solutions are being
exposed as insufficient to support performance needs. Moving to a SAN infrastructure featuring and ATTO FastStream
SC 7500 allows customers to complete projects on time and under budget with built-in scalability for future growth.
Current Workflow
Many editors utilize internal storage, that is, storage which
is included with their server or external Firewire or eSATA
drives. These solutions do work and have worked for many
years however their shortcomings are becoming more
apparent as video editing storage needs expand.
Studio managers are starting to realize that in order to
meet the deadlines and needs of today’s editing workflow
changes need to occur in storage, specifically on how edi-
tors collaborate on projects and how to increase perform-
ance for uncompressed video and digital film. One solution
that will help a studio expand their workflow capacity is the
addition of a Storage Area Network (SAN), however this
solution is perceived as a very expensive and very compli-
cated solution which the studio may feel is beyond their
expertise and budget. That does not have to be the case.
FastStream Small Workgroup SAN Solution
The ATTO FastStream SC 7500 was engineered to pro-
vide high performance, low latency access to disk stor-
age while providing parity protection. This allows editors
to create high speed SANs which enable a collaborative
workflow among several editors without the complexity
or high cost associated with other SAN products.
The solution consists of the FastStream SC 7500, basic
disk storage, Fibre Channel host adapters and SAN
management software.
Benefits
• High-speed 4-Gb performance via four independent
Fibre Channel ports provide up to 1400 MBps
• Support for 3-Gb SAS and/or SATA drives
• Performance for SD, HD and Digital Film workflows
• Protect all data with parity RAID protection
• Compatible with all leading editing solutions
• Purchase RAID one time, use low cost, off-the-shelf
storage instead of expensive RAID arrays
• No storage server needed
• No Fibre Channel switch needed
• Expand existing RAID groups or create new ones with
the addition of storage as your needs grow
• Simple management and diagnostics via the
ExpressNAV™ browser based user interface
FastStream Configuration - This solution is more economical
than a traditional SAN. By combining RAID functionality and
multiple fibre channel ports users can eliminate the need for a
switch. Expansion is simple, just connect additional storage
enclosures and the FastStream provides RAID protection for up
to 128 storage devices including disk and tape.
Current Solution - Consists of direct attached storage that is not
shared among multiple workstations. Files can be shared over
the LAN, but transferring even a small HD file can take hours.
Direct Attached Storage
FastStream™ SC 7500
Any SAS/SATA Storage

ATTO Technology, Inc. www.attotech.com
Tech Brief - Affordable SAN Solution Rev 10-08
FastStream Interoperability
Performance Optimization
Performance is a key component of an editing solution
and the FastStream provides best in class performance
to editing applications.
24 drives, 1MB Transfer size, 128 KB Interleave – 8 QDepth
Rebuild Technology
One of the most important functions of a RAID solution
for digital content creation is degraded performance
which is performance during a drive rebuild. The above
chart shows an example of normal RAID performance
and performance during rebuilds. As you can see,
streaming applications have full access to disk band-
width in the event of a drive failure which allows editors
to complete projects on time.
Ease of Use
ATTO FastStream features installation wizards for au-
dio and video applications to allow you to spend less
time managing your storage and more time editing. We
developed the FastStream line of products from the
ground up to not only make them easy to use, but easy
to setup, maintain and manage storage from one central
location.
Storage and OS Agnostic
FastStream Storage Control-
lers were engineered to be
interoperable with a number
of storage products. This al-
lows you to purchase one
brand of storage to begin
your infrastructure and pur-
chase other brands of stor-
age as your needs mature.
There are no operating sys-
tem requirements for the
FastStream. So there are no
worries if your system runs in
OS X, Windows, Linux or pro-
prietary operating systems.
Full Interoperability information can be found on the
ATTO website at www.attotech.com.
RAID 5 SAS Drives SATA Drives
Reads 1183 MB/sec 926 MB/sec
Writes 593 MB/sec 478 MB/sec
Reads / Rebuild 1162 MB/sec 912 MB/sec
Writes / Rebuild 593 MB/sec 476 MB/sec
Rebuild – with I/O 38 Minutes 60 Minutes
Rebuild – no I/O 7 Minutes 16 Minutes
Tested with
AIC
Dell
Engenio
Enhance
Infortrend
JMR
NEC
Nexsan
Promise
SGI
Sun
Xtore
Xyratex
FastStream Storage Controller Solution
Typical Shared SAN Solution
Cost Comparison - Several solutions exist today which
enable a shared environment, most of these solutions are
geared toward Enterprise infrastructures and as such feature a
high price tag. Since the FastStream has the ability to scale up
to meet customer needs; a solution may be created for up to
half the price of the competition.
Most expense in this solution is contributed by the Fibre
Channel Switch and RAID Array’s. Whenever storage expan-
sion is needed RAID needs to be repurchased along with the
enclosure and disk drives. A typical solution including SAN
Management software, Switch and RAID Storage may cost
well over $50,000.
The FastStream SC Solution replaces the Fibre Channel
Switch and allows the use of lower cost JBOD Enclosures
which do not have built in RAID - The FastStream provides the
SAN connectivity and RAID protection. A typical solution in-
cluding SAN management software, FastStream and Storage
costs less than $30,000.
Tested Compatible with
Apple Final Cut Pro / Final Cut Studio
Apple Shake 2D/3D Compositing
Adobe Premiere / PhotoShop
AJA
Avid Media Composer / Nitris
Blackmagic
Cinema 4D
Digidesign ProTools HD
Logic Pro
Matrox AXIO