Zenith Infotech BDR-8432-G12R1-R Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliance Teardown

Teardown Overview

This teardown is of the Zenith BDR8432-G12R1-R - a 'high-performance backup and disaster recovery appliance, sold by Zenith Infotech. Per Zenith Infotech, 'the storage capacity for the BDR-G12 starts at 750GB up to 9TB…' and is an 'enterprise business continuity device combining high availability, 15 minute backups and disaster recovery. This solution offers restoration of files, folder, emails, and databases along with acting as a high availability device by being able to run a virtual instance of a backed up server within 10 minutes to allow business operations to continue with minimal interruption. BDR-G12 supports replication from one BDR-G12 device to another over the Internet or a LAN for disaster recovery purposes.'

The teardown reveals that the system revolves around an off-the-shelf ASUS motherboard (that is AMD-based). Initially we assumed ASUS might be ODM'ing the entire system for Zenith - but based on what we saw in the Barracuda systems - it is more likely that Zenith are simply buying the ASUS motherboard as a unit and as part of a kit of high-level assemblies and having another EMS provider (the shipping box was labeled as built in Taiwan) assemble the whole. Still the Taiwan origins would still not exclude ASUS as a possibility and was one of the clues that made us suppose this relationship in the first place. The key to this system, in terms of keeping it cost-effective - come down to using inexpensive off-the-shelf system level components from ASUS and others - and the fact that this is AMD-based (AMD solutions are more aggressively priced than Intel typically).

Zenith Infotech BDR-8432-G12R1-R Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliance Main Image

Enterprise Users

Released

Feb 2012 per press release

Zenith Infotech BDR-8432-G12R1-R Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliance - Motherboard Top

~$11,200 Retail pricing

Pricing varies depending on configuration but paid just over $11,000 USD at retail for this system.

Worldwide

Assumed to be marketed worldwide. Zenith Infotech's information appears to be region-agnostic.

Zenith Infotech BDR-8432-G12R1-R Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliance - Motherboard Bottom

5,000 Total Units
5 Total Years

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed an Annual Production Volume of 5000 units and a Product Lifetime Volume of 5 year(s).

Teardown volume and production assumptions are primarily used for our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially). Unless assumed volumes are different by an order of magnitude, minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis because of this.

Zenith Infotech BDR-8432-G12R1-R Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliance Cost Analysis

Total BOM: $1,838.29
Top Cost Drivers below: $1,632.47
% of Total BOM 89%

Main Cost Drivers below

Western Digital WD2003FYYS Hard Drive - 2TB, 3.5', SATA 3Gb/s, 7200RPM, 64MB Buffer- (Qty: 4)
Actica ACT4GHU72D8H1333H DIMM DDR3-1333 - 4GB, 512Mx72, 1.5V, ECC- (Qty: 8)
AMD OS4122WLU4DGNWOF CPU - AMD Opteron 4122, 2.2GHz, Quad-Core, 512KB L2 Cache, 6,144KB L3 Cache, 95W, 45nm- (Qty: 2)
Western Digital WD5000AAKX Hard Drive - 500GB, 3.5', SATA 6Gb/s, 7200RPM, 16MB Buffer- (Qty: 2)
Seasonic SS-460H2U Active PFC Power Supply - 3.3V/20A, 5V/21A, 12V/32A, -12V/0.8A, 5Vsb/3A, 460W- (Qty: 1)
Intel EXPI9402PTBLK PCIe Network Adapter - Gigabit LAN, Dual Port- (Qty: 1)
Lin Horn Technology 8-Layer - FR4, Lead Free- (Qty: 1)
Rail Assembly - Stamped / Formed Electro-Galvanized Steel, 3-Piece, w/ 56 Ball Bearings, Latch & Plastic Bumper- (Qty: 2)
Dynatron CPU Heatsink / Cooler Assembly - Extruded / Machined Copper Base, Stamped / Formed Copper Fins, w/ 12VDC 2 Ball Bearing Fan, & 2 Spring-Loaded Screws- (Qty: 2)
Enclosure, Main, Chassis - Stamped / Formed Electro-Galvanized Steel, Painted, w/ 25 Pressed-In Threaded Metal Inserts- (Qty: 1)

Not Included in Analysis

The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect ONLY the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), AND manufacturing with basic test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the material manufacture of the core device itself - cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees (those not already included into the per component price), software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics marketing and other channel costs including not only EMS provider and the OEM's margin, but that of other resellers. Our cost analysis is meant to focus on those costs incurred in the manufacture of the core device and exceptionally in some circumstances the packaging and literature as well.

We do provide an Excel tab 'Overall Costs' where a user can enter their known pre and post production costs to build a per unit cost reflective of theirs actual expenditures.

Zenith Infotech BDR-8432-G12R1-R Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliance - Disassembly View 1

Manufacturing Notes

As mentioned above - the motherboard in this system was clearly an off-the-shelf ASUS solution. Furthermore, as the system was integrated in Taiwan (the shipping box is labeled Made in Taiwan) - it is possible that ASUS are the ODM for Zenith Infotech here taking care of all of the hardware. Though finding other integrators in Taiwan would not be hard to do. The chassis had a made in USA label inside it - which is confusing - could simply be the manufacturer of the chassis itself - but to ship it to Taiwan for final integration seems an odd choice.

For the purposes of this analysis, we are assuming the following country(ies) of origin for each level of assembly, based on a combination of 'Made In' markings, and/or assumptions based on our knowledge of such equipment.

Country of Origin

Box Contents - China
CPU - Taiwan
Drives - Taiwan
Memory - Taiwan
Motherboard - China
Other - Chassis - Taiwan
PCIe Network Adapter - Taiwan

Country of origin assumptions relate directly to the associated cost of manufacturing, where calculated by iSuppli. In the cases of 'finished' sub-assemblies (such as hard drives), we do not calculate internal manufacturing costs, but rather assess the market price of the finished product in which case country of origin assumptions may or may not have a direct effect on pricing.

Labor rates are applied directly only to hand inserted components and systems in our bill of materials, and although regional assumptions do, these new rates do not have a direct effect on our modeled calculations of placement costs for automated SMD assembly lines. "Auto inserted components (such as SMT components) placement costs are calculated by an iSuppli algorithm which allocates a cost per component based on the size and pincount of the device. This calculation is affected by country or region of origin as well.

Design Complexity

Component counts by assembly and the number of assembly are indicators of design complexity and efficiency.

Component Qty: 6 - Drives
Component Qty: 8 - Memory
Component Qty: 2 - CPU
Component Qty: 476 - Other - Chassis
Component Qty: 2936 - Motherboard
Component Qty: 13 - Box Contents
Component Qty: 2 - PCIe Network Adapter
Component Qty: 3443 - Grand Total