RocketPort INFINITY - Quantum
- The ability to test virtually any number of units at one time
- This capability proves invaluable in increasing testing efficiency and accuracy
- Proven reliability and sufficient cost savings
Challenge
Quantum has been, a leading global specialist in backup, recovery and archiving for more than 27 years and focuses on assisting IT departments in their data protection and data retention challenges.
To ensure intelligent and innovative solutions to meet rapidly evolving industry needs, Quantum runs numerous tests on their products, utilizing multi-port serial cards from Comtrol to ensure efficiency and accuracy throughout this process. One such test involves their DXi7500 disk backup solution for distributed and enterprise environments. The DXi7500 allows users to add policy-based de-duplication, remote replication and direct tape creation to their backup strategy thus increasing performance, enhancing data protection and reducing overall costs.
“The DXi7500 uses Quantum’s patented data de-duplication technology to reduce disk requirements by 90 percent or more and make WAN-based replication a practical DR tool,” said Casey Collins, manufacturing test engineer at Quantum. “Scalable to 240TB raw capacity, the DXi7500 is designed for larger sites and corporate data centers.”
Technology Solution
RocketPort INFINITY cards provide drop-in serial port connectivity for PCI-X and PCI expansion slots, and EXPRESS models are also available for PCI Express slots. RocketPort cards feature 4 to 32 port models, providing the most port density options for connecting to even more serial devices.
“Comtrol’s RocketPort INFINITY cards allow us to virtually test as many units at a time as we would like,” Collins said.
This capability proves invaluable in increasing testing efficiency and accuracy. Alternative methods include moving serial cables from component to component during testing.
“I can’t begin to quantify how much longer it would take if we had to move the cables during testing,” Collins said. "And even more importantly, this alternative method would allow room for error during the testing process."
“We would need to have our technicians constantly monitor our tests, which is not an option,” Collins said. “We pride ourselves on having them start the test and walk away—only returning when the test is completed.”
The other alternative method, using USB serial adapters, eliminated the need to move cables by providing port expansion, allowing Quantum to test multiple products at the same time. However, this method didn’t deliver the accuracy needed for the company’s tests.
“We have tried using USB serial adapters for some of our tests, but usually end up replacing them with RocketPort cards, as they are much more reliable,” Collins said. The issues resulting from USB serial adapter use was problematic enough that Quantum wasn’t able to successfully run their tests.
“We had many problems with reliable communication. We believe the noise was power related and caused extraneous signals to be received by the serial port,” Collins said. “It was bad enough that we were not able to successfully run our tests. We often had to unplug and re-plug the USB connections to recover communication— which is not acceptable to us.”
Since switching to the RocketPort cards for this test approximately one year ago, reliability has greatly improved, increasing efficiency and saving costs related to maintenance and downtime.
“We have not had to utilize customer service,” Collins said. “In my mind that is a good thing. It shows the reliability of Comtrol’s products.”
Additional Information
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