Storage hardware vendor Fusion-io has unveiled a palm-sized storage area network device designed for local implementation at multiple points around the network.

The ioDrive can be installed in an HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure, and functions as a local storage device.

The device is designed to deliver 100,000 input/output operations per second per card, while achieving sustained data rates of 800Mbps (read) and 600Mbps (write).

Based on Fusion-io's proprietary ioMemory architecture, the device is a single PCIe x4 card that operates as either local storage or storage cache.

The ioDrive requires no changes to applications or infrastructure, and can be installed transparently at multiple points in existing data centres or workstations.

Fusion-io claims that it allows enterprises to get around buying high performance fibre channel disks, fibre channel switches, Raid controllers, Host Bus Adapters, exotic disks, caching appliances, excessive cabling or customised software.

The device is available in 40GB, 80GB, 160GB, 320GB and 640GB configurations.

David Flynn, chief technology officer at Fusion-io, said: "For years the industry has focused on storage capacity utilisation or I/O bandwidth performance, resulting in unnecessary complexity and cost in existing storage infrastructure.

"Such solutions as exotic disks, expensive caching appliances or custom crafted software only exacerbate this problem.

"The ioDrive effectively eliminates multiple layers of complexity and cost within storage infrastructure to address the entirety of data access requirements in today's data centres and workstations (e.g. capacity, data availability, access rates, data reliability, performance, etc)."