High-Rely MPac-G2 RAID Backup Drive Performance

By Olin Coles

Manufacturer: Highly Reliable Systems, Inc.
Product Name: MPac-G2

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by High-Rely.

Not long ago I discovered Highly Reliable Systems, makers of computer backup appliances and disaster recovery systems. Most of their products seems standard fare: network attached with redundant storage and lots of backup-specific software features, but a few specific products stood out as being entirely unique to the market. Among them was the MPac media cartridge, which has recently been reintroduced in its second generation revision as the MPac-G2 RAID Backup Drive.

MPac-G2 is essentially made up of two 2.5″ drives (either hard disk or solid state) paired together into a steel cartridge that houses a RAID controller. This cartridge is then used to store backup data that can be accessed outside the backup appliance at extreme speeds for disaster recovery purposes, either by the integrated SATA 6Gb/s port or SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port.

I first discovered MPac-G2 while writing Getting Data Out of the Cloud Before Disaster, and learned the drive was capable of RAID-0/1 and JBOD at SATA 6.0 Gb/s or USB 3.0 speeds by utilizing an integrated JMicron Technology JMS562 bridge chip. MPac-G2 drives are presently available in raw capacities up to 4TB per cartridge, enabling long-term data retention with half the physical size of other backup storage devices.

The High-Rely MPac-G2 is what they’ve termed “highly-removable”, as it’s been designed for thousands of removal cycles. The steel chassis enclosure protects the internal components, delivering an additional layer of protection over a bare hard disk or unshielded drive tray. MPac-G2 is ideal for back and disaster recovery tasks because of it’s small form factor, but also because it offers a field-accessible SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port on every cartridge.

Preliminary benchmark tests have yielded 260 MB/s transfers across a USB 3.0 connection while using MPac-G2 in RAID-0 mode, which surpasses performance for all full-size 3.5″ hard disks. Inserted into its newly redesigned receiver bay, MPac-G2 delivers SATA 6.0 Gb/s connectivity with early performance results reaching twice that of a single hard disk or RDX media.

Preliminary benchmark tests have yielded 260 MB/s transfers across a USB 3.0 connection while using MPac-G2 in RAID-0 mode built using two Samsung 2TB hard disk drives, which surpasses performance for all full-size 3.5″ hard disks. Inserted into its newly redesigned receiver bay, MPac-G2 delivers SATA 6.0 Gb/s connectivity with early performance results reaching twice that of a single hard disk or RDX media.

High-Rely MPac-G2 backup media and accompanying NetSwap computer backup systems are immediately available through channel partner resellers. High-Rely offers a wide range of network-attached and direct-attached backup storage solutions. Please visit http://www.high-rely.com to learn more about the High-Rely product line.