SMART Storage Systems Fundamentally Changes Enterprise Storage TCO With New CloudSpeed 500 SSD

NEWARK, CA--(Marketwire - Apr 24, 2012) - SMART Storage Systems, an innovative and rapidly emerging enterprise SSD technology provider, today announced the CloudSpeed 500 Serial ATA (SATA) 6Gb/s solid-state drive (SSD). Leveraging cost effective consumer grade multi-level cell (MLC) Flash, CloudSpeed 500 is an enterprise-class SSD that delivers the high-performance and endurance required in enterprise server environments at consumer MLC value, fundamentally changing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for cloud storage and server applications.

With the rise of social networking and other cloud computing services, data creation and the need to access data in near real-time has grown at an unprecedented rate. This has led enterprise organizations to utilize SSDs in order to meet the throughput levels necessary to work with an ever-increasing data-set. In the past, enterprise organizations turned to client-class SSDs leveraging consumer MLC Flash because they provided significant performance improvements over traditional hard disk drives (HDD) at a lower cost than higher-endurance SSDs utilizing single-level cell (SLC) Flash. However, client-class SSDs are designed for read-intensive environments and quickly wear out in typical cloud storage and server mixed workload environments. This has forced IT managers to use a consumption model, resulting in the need to replace an SSD multiple times within a typical warranty period, driving up TCO.

Leveraging SMART Storage Systems' Guardian Technology Platform™, a proprietary suite of enterprise features and endurance enhancement technologies, the new CloudSpeed 500 SSD can achieve up to 5x higher endurance than competing consumer MLC-based SSDs. This enables enterprise organizations to extend the working life of their storage and avoid constant SSD replacement.

"Until now, IT managers had to choose between very high-endurance, high-cost SSD's or lower-cost, 'read mostly' client SSDs," said John Scaramuzzo, president at SMART Storage Systems. "This posed a problem for many organizations, as neither SSD type was designed for the light to moderate mixed workloads required in the server and cloud environments. With the release of the CloudSpeed 500 SSD, we are solving this problem by delivering up to 5 times longer SSD life while maintaining the value of consumer MLC. This fundamentally changes the TCO game for server and cloud storage applications."

Available in capacities from 60 - 480GB, the new CloudSpeed 500 is a SATA 6Gb/s SSD that achieves up to 500MB/s of sustained read/write performance and 60K/20K random read/write IOPS. Satisfying the requirements of enterprise server environments, the CloudSpeed 500 offers a full line of enterprise features, including SMART Storage Systems' third generation backup power circuit technology and a five year warranty.

The CloudSpeed 500 will begin sampling to select customers later in the second quarter of 2012. For more information on the CloudSpeed 500 or SMART Storage Systems, please visit the company's website at http://www.smartstoragesys.com, the company's blog at http://www.smartstorageblog.com, or find us on Twitter under the handle @SMARTSSD.

About SMART Storage Systems

SMART Storage Systems is a technology leader in the design, development and deployment of current and next-generation enterprise solid-state storage products. Combining leading-edge, enterprise-class design and proven world-class support, SMART Storage Systems leverages its deep expertise in Flash and enterprise storage technology. SMART Storage Systems delivers high-quality, high-reliability solutions to a broad customer base including tier one storage and server OEMs. In support of these designs, SMART Storage Systems provides award-winning innovations in solid-state storage technology, such as NAND high-endurance Guardian™ technology, to a variety of customers in the enterprise storage, enterprise server, data center, defense and industrial markets. SMART Storage Systems is part of the SMART family of global companies. See www.smartstoragesys.com for more information.

About SMART Worldwide Holdings

The SMART family of companies are leading designers, manufacturers and suppliers of electronic subsystems for the most demanding OEMs around the world. The SMART companies have led the way over the past 23 years providing standard and custom products to today's leading global OEMs crossing all major electronic industries. These industries include PC, enterprise and industrial servers, networking, telecom, defense, aerospace, gaming and embedded application markets. Taking innovations from the design stage through manufacturing and delivery, SMART Modular Technologies has developed a comprehensive memory product line that includes DRAM, SRAM and Flash memory in various form factors. SMART Storage Systems offers high-performance, high-capacity SSDs for enterprise, defense, aerospace, industrial automation, medical and transportation markets. SMART's presence in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America enables it to provide its customers with proven expertise in international logistics, asset management and supply-chain management worldwide. See www.smartm.com for more information.