The arrival of SAS marks a new era in storage scalability, wherein both the type and quantity of drives can easily be optimized. SAS compatibility with Serial ATA (SATA) enables seamless deployment of desktop-class SATA drives and enterprise-class SAS drives in the same SAS domain, ensuring the optimal drive for both online and nearline duties. There is another, less immediately obvious benefit to SAS/SATA compatibility: It boosts SATA scalability far beyond the limits imposed by SATA-based infrastructures. Deploying hundreds, even thousands of SATA drives in a single SAS domain is a straightforward affair, requiring only standard SAS HBAs and expanders. Get the scoop on how enterprise-class SAS infrastructure enables SATA disc drives to transcend the scalability constraints inherent in their desktop DNA.
