NEWARK, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/27/12 -- SMART Storage Systems, an innovative enterprise SSD technology provider, today announced that the CloudSpeed 500 solid state drive (SSD) was named as the Solid State Storage Product of the Year at the Achievements in Storage, Virtualization and Cloud Computing (SVC) Awards 2012. Recognized by the SVC Awards judges for its inclusion of SMART Storage Systems' Guardian Technology Platform, which enables up to 5x the endurance of competing multi-level cell (MLC)-based Flash SSDs, the CloudSpeed 500 significantly reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) of storage in server and cloud computing applications.

"Until now, IT managers had to choose between either very high-endurance, high-cost SSDs or lower-cost, 'read mostly' client SSDs which quickly burn out, skyrocketing the TCO of storage," said John Scaramuzzo, president of SMART Storage Systems. "The CloudSpeed 500 solves this problem by extending the endurance of lower-cost MLC Flash far beyond its native capabilities. Being recognized by SVC as the product of the year is not only a great honor, but validates our CloudSpeed 500 as an industry-leading solution that meets the performance, endurance and TCO requirements of enterprise organizations worldwide."

Focused on storage, virtualization and cloud computing technologies, the annual SVC Awards highlight leading companies and solutions in 15 categories. Nominated products are first selected as finalists by a panel of European IT publication editors and analysts, which are then submitted to an open vote of IT end users. Full award results can be viewed on the SVC Awards website.

Available in capacities of 120, 240, 480GB, the CloudSpeed 500 features a 6Gb/s SATA interface and provides 500MB/s sequential read/write and 60K/20K IOPS random read/write performance. Satisfying the requirements of enterprise server environments and backed up by a five year warranty, the CloudSpeed 500 offers a full line of enterprise features. Leveraging SMART Storage Systems' proprietary Guardian Technology Platform, tier-one OEM-enterprise firmware, proven power fail technology and the latest generation of consumer MLC NAND flash, the CloudSpeed 500 offers all the features expected from an enterprise-class drive at the right value.

For more information on the CloudSpeed 500 or SMART Storage Systems, please visit the company's website at http://www.smartstoragesys.com, the company's blog at http://www.smartstorageblog.com, find us on Twitter under the handle @SMARTSSD, or connect with us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/smart-storage-systems.

About SMART Storage Systems

SMART Storage Systems is a technology leader in the design, development and deployment of current and next-generation enterprise solid-state storage products. Combining leading-edge, enterprise-class design and proven world-class support, SMART Storage Systems leverages its deep expertise in Flash and enterprise storage technology. SMART Storage Systems delivers high-quality, high-reliability solutions to a broad customer base including tier one storage and server OEMs. In support of these designs, SMART Storage Systems provides award-winning innovations in solid-state storage technology, such as NAND high-endurance Guardian™ technology, to a variety of customers in the enterprise storage, enterprise server, data center, defense and industrial markets. SMART Storage Systems is part of the SMART family of global companies. See www.smartstoragesys.com for more information.

About SMART Worldwide Holdings

The SMART family of global companies are leading designers, manufacturers and suppliers of electronic subsystems for the most demanding OEMs around the world. The SMART companies have led the way over the past 23 years providing standard and custom products to today's leading global OEMs crossing all major electronic industries. These industries include PC, enterprise and industrial servers, networking, telecom, defense, aerospace, gaming and embedded application markets. Taking innovations from the design stage through manufacturing and delivery, SMART Modular Technologies has developed a comprehensive memory product line that includes DRAM, SRAM and Flash memory in various form factors. SMART Storage Systems offers high-performance, high-capacity SSDs for enterprise storage, enterprise server, data center, defense, aerospace, industrial automation, medical and transportation markets. SMART's presence in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America enables it to provide its customers with proven expertise in international logistics, asset management and supply-chain management worldwide. See www.smartm.com for more information.