2009-11-10 14:15:09 -

SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/10/09 -- BlueArc® Corporation, a leader in scalable, high-performance unified network storage, today announced that the BlueArc Mercury(TM) storage system has achieved Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC®) system file server (sfs) benchmark results that exceed benchmarks of comparable network storage solutions on the market.



Distinguished by its hybrid-core architecture and the hardware accelerated SiliconFS® filesystem, consecutive generations of BlueArc technology consistently have returned SPECsfs® test results that outperform competing solutions. BlueArc tested both Mercury 50 and Mercury 100 storage systems, yielding industry-leading results for its single and dual node file server configurations on the SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 test for network storage server performance. These results were generated utilizing a true market-ready system configuration.



In SPECsfs tests:

--  BlueArc Mercury 100 delivered dual server performance of 146,076
    SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 ops per second, with an Overall Response Time of 3.3
    msec. This result delivers 18 percent higher ops per second than NetApp's
    FAS6080 (FCAL Disks) dual controller configuration, while using fewer disk
    drives for greater spindle efficiency.
--  BlueArc Mercury 50 delivered single server performance of 40,137
    SPECsfs2008_nfs.v3 ops per second, with an Overall Response Time of 3.8
    msec. This result delivers the same ops per second as NetApp's FAS3140
    (FCAL Disks) dual controller configuration, while using fewer disk drives
    for greater spindle efficiency.
    

With the explosive growth of unstructured data, companies of all sizes are struggling to keep pace. BlueArc addresses storage inefficiencies with its powerful file system and hardware platform that allows companies to consolidate users, applications and storage systems to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their storage infrastructure, without compromising performance. Mercury unleashes the performance and features of pricey, high performance storage systems at an affordable mid-range price.



"As our customers look to consolidate servers, Mercury's performance and scalability are indispensable, enabling greater utilization of storage infrastructure to lower total cost of ownership," said Bridget Warwick, vice president of marketing at BlueArc. "The results for Mercury illustrate BlueArc's continued leadership in storage performance at a new, mid-market price point."



"Our research has demonstrated that businesses are managing a large and growing number of file systems, and everyone is looking for ways to consolidate in the data center. Almost 90 percent of the users we surveyed this past year are looking to scale-out NAS solutions, like those from BlueArc, as a consolidation platform," said Terri McClure, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "Mercury delivers the performance and advanced data management features to empower users with the tools to make consolidation a reality. BlueArc's test results demonstrate their continued leadership in high performance storage, with Mercury's affordable price point providing the gateway to a larger customer base."



About the SPECsfs Benchmark


SPECsfs2008 is the latest version of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation benchmark suite measuring file server throughput and response time, providing a standardized method for comparing performance across different vendor platforms. SPECsfs2008 results summarize the server's capabilities with respect to the number of operations that can be handled per second, as well as the overall latency of the operations. The suite is a follow-on to the SFS97_R1 benchmark, with an updated NFSv3 workload, support for additional client platforms, and a new test harness and reporting/submission framework.



SPEC® and the benchmark name SPECsfs® are registered trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Competitive benchmark results stated above reflect results published on www.spec.org : www.spec.org as of November 10, 2009. The comparison presented above is based on Standard Performance Evaluation Corp.'s benchmark that measures NFS file server throughput and response time. For the latest SPECsfs2008 benchmark results, visit www.spec.org/sfs2008/ : www.spec.org/sfs2008/ .



About BlueArc


BlueArc partners with customers to solve their storage and data management-related business challenges. BlueArc's best-of-breed, high-performance, highly scalable and cost-effective storage solutions help to accelerate our customers' success. Information about BlueArc solutions and services can be found at www.bluearc.com/ : www.bluearc.com/ .

Contact:
Kort van Bronkhorst
BlueArc Corporation
(408) 576-6684
kvanbronkhorst@bluearc.com :