"It was the combination of Dot Hill's technology, time to market, support and expertise that made this partnership such an attractive proposition for Viglen", stated Borden Tkachuk, chief executive officer, Viglen. "The ease with which the product can be customised and branded, its superior performance and flexibility in terms of the ability to mix drive types within a chassis, is far superior to anything else on the market."

Ideal for a broad range of applications, the 2730 features a 4Gb Fibre Channel host interface and both Serial-ATA (SATA) and Serial attached SCSI (SAS) disk drives with industry-leading uptime. The 2730 offers scalability and flexibility, enabling customers to expand up to 56 high-performance SAS, low cost SATA II drives or any combination of the two for tiered storage implementations.

One of the reasons Viglen chose to partner with Dot Hill was because of its commitment to deploying IT solutions that address environmental concerns in the areas of power consumption and reduction in the use of hazardous waste.

Dot Hill uses EcoStor, an environmentally friendly, battery free alternative for cache back up in the event of a power failure. If this were to happen, the cache in the storage unit is powered by super capacitors; the cache is then transferred to compact flash ensuring it is saved safely and indefinitely. This is a far more resilient solution than traditional battery based designs. With up to a 10-year life span, EcoStor eliminates the need for battery replacement or charging, and the issues of battery disposal and also the periodic replacement downtime associated with batteries. The array operates in high performance write-back cache mode within minutes of installation versus hours with batteries. Several further environmentally responsible technologies are planned for release through Dot Hill's EcoStor initiative.

"Viglen is setting the standard for IT solutions delivery for the Education sector and we believe that the Dot Hill 2730 platform will provide unique competitive advantage for the VigStor brand through innovative technologies such as EcoStor", stated Bert van der Woning, managing director, Dot Hill Systems EMEA. "Environmental issues are a high priority today and Viglen is leading the way with their EnviroQuiet range of products and services."

Both Dot Hill and Viglen have been included in the NSSA (National Server and Storage Framework Agreement) published by the SUPC (Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium) The UK's largest university purchasing consortium made up of 88 higher education colleges and universities within the south of England.