MPC Rolls Out Storage Expansion With Faster Connectivity for the DataFRAME 2112 SAN Appliance

MPC Computers, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MPC Corporation (Amex: MPZ), today announced that it will offer expansion shelves to complement its DataFRAME 2112 SAN appliance, which the company introduced late in 2007. The new expansion capability enables customers to increase the capacity of their SAN environment in a simple and flexible manner, such that both SAS and SATA drives can be deployed within the same shelf and across shelves to optimize the overall SAN design for a wide variety of workloads.

In addition to the increased storage capacity, MPC will be offer 10-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity for the DataFRAME 2112 via an add-in card, which will enable customers to achieve storage access and throughput performance at state-of-the-art iSCSI speeds.

The new expansion capability makes use of a storage expansion shelf called the E-842R, which is a storage product that MPC integrated into its product line as a result of its acquisition of the Gateway Professional business in October 2007. The E-842R is a 2U storage unit that houses 12 SAS and/or SATA drives. Using multiple E-842R shelves connected to the DataFRAME 2112, the overall system can scale from 12 hard drives in a single DataFRAME 2112 2U appliance, up to 72 hard drives in a 12U configuration, and 144 hard drives in a High-Availability (24U) design. Both the E-842R and the DataFRAME 2112 utilize high-performance and energy efficient system designs from Xyratex (http://www.xyratex.com), a leading provider of enterprise class data storage subsystems and storage process technology.

Choice and Flexibility

"The DataFRAME 2112 SAN appliance is a totally open, standards-based, enterprise-class data protection and disaster recovery solution for professional customers," notes Greg Wolff, area vice president of product marketing for MPC. "With our new storage expansion and 10GbE connectivity, customers can increase the capacity of their SAN environment over time and mix and match SAS and SATA drive technologies so that any drive type can be assigned to any application."

This announcement follows on the heels of storage software leader FalconStor's release (http://www.falconstor.com/en/pages/?pn=Press&gid=525) of its optimized IPStor(R) version 6 platform, which is part of the software stack that makes up the DataFRAME 2112. MPC will make the new IPStor 6 software available in future DataFRAME 2112 shipments, or through software upgrades to existing installs.

"MPC is taking a standards-based, building block approach to server storage, leveraging our latest FalconStor(R) technology to enable thin provisioning, enhanced data protection and scalability," said Bernie Wu, vice president of business development for FalconStor Software. "The combination of our storage software solutions with the enhanced storage capacity of the DataFRAME 2112 will be welcomed by customers who would like to scale their storage to meet the growing needs driven by server virtualization, business continuity and instant data recovery."

One such business is TechLaw Solutions (http://www.techlawsolutions.com), a national electronic discovery and litigation support services firm which has adopted the DataFRAME 2112, and now plans to expand its deployment to other business units. "We currently host 20-30 TB of data, and plan to expand that amount 80- to 100-fold over the next twelve months," says Jed Baxter, senior network engineer for TechLaw Solutions. "We were looking for an iSCSI SAN that could provide our environment with high performance, reliability, and scalability. The DataFRAME 2112 was the logical choice for our rapidly growing storage needs and disaster recovery plans." (To read a case study on TechLaw Solutions, click here: http://www.mpccorp.com/commercial/store/servers/overview_dataframe.html).

About MPC

MPC Corporation (Amex: MPZ), a major U.S. PC vendor since 1991, provides enterprise IT hardware solutions to mid-size businesses, government agencies and education organizations. With its October 2007 acquisition of Gateway's Professional business, MPC Corporation became the only top-10 U.S. PC vendor focused exclusively on the $43 billion Professional PC market. For more information, visit MPC online at http://www.mpccorp.com.

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