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Tag: san

  • DroboElite Brings BeyondRAID Technology to SMBs

    Data Robotics announced DroboElite, the first iSCSI SAN storage that manages itself.

    DroboElite is a business class data storage solution that brings the company’s BeyondRAID technology to small and medium businesses.

    According to Data Robotics, DroboElite, the fastest Drobo to date, features a new hardware architecture that includes an enhanced processing engine and dual high-speed iSCSI interfaces for 150 percent of the performance of previous Drobo models.

    “True multi-host support with LUN affinity allows small and medium businesses with limited IT resources to simplify management and reduce costs by consolidating storage across multiple servers,” the company says.

    DroboElite delivers automated capacity expansion and one-click single- or dual-drive redundancy for data protection for Windows, Mac and Linux machines.

    The new system extends the number of Smart Volumes – Data Robotics’ unique thin provisioning that pulls storage from a common pool of drives – so that users can now create up to 255 virtual storage volumes.

    “Smart Volumes allow companies to create new volumes in seconds and manage them over time by pulling storage from a common pool rather than a specific physical drive allocation. Smart Volumes are also file system aware which allows deleted data blocks to be immediately returned to the pool for future use,” the firm says.

    The new Drobo features multi-host support that enables the companies with multiple servers to add or consolidate storage by connecting the DroboElite into their existing TCP/IP network and utilizing the industry-standard iSCSI protocol.

    The Elite also comes with VMware-ready features: with dual iSCSI ports and the ability to create up to 255 Smart Volumes, it can support VMware environments and advanced functionality including VMotion, Storage VMotion, snapshots, and high availability.

    DroboElite features multiple stream optimization, dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces for high-speed iSCSI and 8-drive capacity with instant capacity expansion to 16TB and beyond.

    With simplified dual-drive redundancy companies are protected against the simultaneous failure of up to two hard drives without losing access to their data.

    “Our products are exceedingly simple and straightforward to use while providing all of the features that SMBs need to keep their data safe and accessible,” said Dr. Geoff Barrall, CEO and founder of Data Robotics.

    He claims Data Robotics can deliver cost savings up to 90 percent compared to other iSCSI solutions by combining cost-effective hardware with robust iSCSI features.

    DroboElite is currently available starting at a price of $3,499 MSRP, with multiple configurations to $5,899 for a 16TB (8x 2TB) solution.

    The company also introduced Drobo S, a professional-class storage solution.

    “With the introduction of eSATA and a fifth drive bay, as well as enhancements to FireWire 800 throughput, the Drobo S offers 150 percent of the performance of the current four-bay Drobo, making it an ideal storage solution for creative professionals, small offices, and home office users,” according to press release.

  • IBM Delivers First Integrated Solid State Drive Support

    IBM announced that its storage virtualization offering, the IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (SVC), “is now faster, more scalable, and delivers the industry’s first integrated Solid State Drive support.”

    SVC is a storage virtualization system that complements server virtualization technologies and enables a single point of control for storage resources (both IBM and non-IBM arrays) to support “improved business application availability, better IT infrastructure flexibility, and greater resource utilization.”

    Building on IBM’s Quicksilver technology, IBM is introducing SVC 5.0, which now supports Solid State Drives (SSDs).

    The tight integration of SSDs with SVC enables to take advantage of the high throughput capabilities of solid state by delivering up to 800,000 operations per second, and with response times of approximately one millisecond, nearly one-tenth of traditional disk storage.

    SVC support of SSDs is highly flexible with a minimum configuration of only one SSD, helping make the technology more affordable yet scalable without disruption to enterprise requirements, as the company claims.

    According to IBM, additional enhancements to SVC include 8Gbps Fibre Channel support, enabling higher throughout across Storage Area Networks, a tripling of the maximum cache to 24GB per engine, and support for consolidated DR configurations, enhancing SVCs business continuity capabilities.

    SVC also supports attachment to servers using iSCSI protocols over IP networks, which can help reduce costs and simplify server configuration.

    SAN Volume Controller 5.0 will be available November 6, with a US starting list price of $40,000.

  • Dataram Unveils XcelaSAN Storage Optimization Appliance

    Dataram has introduced the XcelaSAN storage optimization appliance, as the company claims – the industry’s first solution to seamlessly deliver up to 30x performance improvement to existing applications.

    The XcelaSAN storage optimization appliance augments existing storage systems by transparently applying caching algorithms that serve the most active block-level data from high speed solid state storage, creating an intelligent, virtual solid state SAN.

    According to Dataram, by accessing under-utilized disk capacity and optimizing data performance of existing storage systems, XcelaSAN eliminates the need for additional hardware to increase application performance – providing investment protection by extending the life of the existing infrastructure and lowering the overall cost of storage ownership for organizations.

    In addition, as the customer’s storage infrastructure changes or consolidates, those new components will automatically benefit from the XcelaSAN storage optimization technology, the company says.

    “The XcelaSAN is an innovative solution which enables mid-sized organizations to seamlessly increase the performance of their existing business-critical applications within an hour of installation. These gains come without making changes to the customer’s existing storage systems, servers or applications," said John Freeman, Dataram’s President and CEO.

    XcelaSAN connects to a storage network using eight 4Gb/s Fibre Channel ports and can connect to the storage switch fabric or directly to back-end storage. It transparently installs in about an hour with no new host software required. The system is managed through a web-based browser for user-friendly operation.

    "It is now well understood that the benefit of a solid state infrastructure for compute-intensive environments is higher application performance with less equipment and lower operational costs," stated Jason Caulkins, Dataram Chief Technologist.

    "The question is no longer ‘How can I benefit from solid state storage?’ but ‘How do I best implement solid state in my existing infrastructure?”

    The XcelaSAN begins shipping during Q4 in the United States and in 1H 2010 throughout Europe and Asia. Pricing starts at $65,000.

  • DataCore Now Supports Fibre Channel over Ethernet

    DataCore announced support for native Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity for its its SANmelody and SANsymphony storage virtualisation solutions.

    The company has added the Emulex and Brocade FCoE converged network adapters (CNAs) and Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches to its FCoE-qualified support list.

    FCoE software drivers are currently available for Microsoft Windows and VMware ESX/vSphere.

    FCoE is a new way of using Ethernet in data centres. It is primarily used to consolidate back-end cables in a data centre – enabling network administrators to use the Ethernet infrastructure for FC and IP protocols. What is needed to make it work is a converged network adapter (CNA), which serves as an FCoE card, along with a network switch.

    According to DataCore, their customers can now transition to an FCoE infrastructure while still supporting existing Fibre Channel investments.

    Customers can run both FCoE and IP traffic through the same port and on the same wire, eliminating the need and expense for separate SAN and LAN adapters and cables.

    The ability to run FC protocol over existing Ethernet cabling is significant for network administration, the company claims. It means that administrators do not need to have a separate network for running Fibre Channel protocol.

    Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing in DataCore stated that their customers can take advantage of FCoE in their “highly scalable, non-stop storage pools without having to replace or modify their existing back-end storage, which may well include DAS, iSCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces.”

  • BTI Receives Brocade Data Center Ready Status for Storage Networking Modules


    BTI Systems has announced that the BTI 7000 Series has additional client services modules, verified by Brocade Communications Systems, as compatible with Brocade-based SAN infrastructure.

    The Brocade Data Center Ready program is a testing and configuration initiative designed to foster end-to-end SAN interoperability. As part of the program, testing is conducted in SAN configurations that include a heterogeneous mix of servers, storage systems, Brocade switches, SAN management and enterprise applications, and other SAN technologies.

    Vendors receive Brocade Data Center Ready qualification after completing tests to confirm that vendors’ products meet interoperability guidelines.

    “Storage area networks are being deployed worldwide at a rapid rate as a scalable, high-performance networking foundation for storage environments. The Brocade Data Center Ready program is an example of our continued commitment to delivering end-to-end interoperability to customers,” said Ben Taft, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances at Brocade.

    BTI Systems certified the Dual 4G Multiprotocol Transponder (1, 2, 4G Fibre Channel), Dual 10G Multiprotocol Transponder (10G Fibre Channel), and the 10-port Multiprotocol Muxponder (1, 2, 4G Fibre Channel), complementing the Dual 1G and 2.5G Multiprotocol Transponders previously certified.

    Jason Smith    , Solutions Marketing and Certifications Program Manager of BTI Systems, claims the Brocade Data Center certification is a key industry stamp that is important to their customers.

    “They know that BTI Systems’ platforms meet the high standards of Brocade’s rigorous testing and they can be confident about the performance we deliver,” he said.

    The BTI 7000 Series delivers all the capabilities of large core network platforms in the industry’s most compact, modular, low power consumption, easy-to-use packet optical network system.

    BTI’s Intelligent Service Edge solutions provide wavelength and packet-level delivery of high capacity services such as video, storage, wired data, wireless data and voice, and media to the network edge.

  • INSIGHT: External IT's Joseph Stedler on the Advantages of Storage Virtualization in Private Clouds


    DataCore Software has announced that hosted IT-as-a-service company External IT has standardized on its SANsymphony storage virtualization software to serve as their storage area network (SAN).

    With VMware virtual servers, Citrix XenApp and DataCore storage virtualization, it allows External IT to deliver a complete virtualization infrastructure.

    Joseph Stedler, senior engineer and Dallas data center manager, External IT, said this is in the form of private computing "clouds", tailored individually to a specific client’s needs.

    He said he had worked with traditional SANs for eight years and has had firsthand experience with every major hardware SAN – including EMC, HP and NetApp.

    "There are various, major drawbacks to hardware SANs. One is the fact that there is a single point of failure at the disk level," he said.

    "This is particularly the case when doing, for example, firmware upgrades – on the controllers, on the disks, on the shelves – whereby you have to take the SAN down to perform that task.

    "The second most irksome characteristic of hardware SANs is their cost. These EMC SANs, these HP EVAs are inherently expensive, particularly during upgrade time."

    Stedler said there are capabilities that DataCore brings to the table that he "absolutely loves".

    "The concept of having two SANs as your one SAN environment is just elegantly simple," he said. "You have an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side."

    Stedler said the beauty of this is that if you need to do hardware maintenance or firmware upgrades, an administrator can actually take down half of the SAN and still have the other half serving production traffic – completely uninterrupted.

    "The second, major benefit of DataCore for External IT has to do with performance," he said.

    "With DataCore, you will experience enormous performance gains. The performance that DataCore delivers is nothing short of awesome."

    Other benefits that make up the "DataCore Difference" for External IT include Seamless Maintenance, Disaster Recovery (through asynchronous replication) and the Flexibility to create your own SANs.

  • Sun Microsystems and The World's First Open Storage Appliance


    Just a few months ago, Sun Microsystems revealed the availability of its new Unified Storage System – the Sun Storage 7000 family.

    Described as the world’s first Open Storage Appliance, Sun claims the Storage 7000 family is the "biggest thing to happen to storage in decades", writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz-news.

    Quite a brag – though the product’s creativity and innovation speaks volumes for Sun’s group of engineers.

    The Storage 7000 family has three different versions – the 7110, 7210, and 7410 – which have an overall capacity ranging from 2 Tbytes to 288 Tbytes.

    However, the 7410 offers a collected configuration (for advanced accessibility) and is typically aimed for enterprise class configurations, whereas the 7110 and 7210 are better designed for less significant fittings.

    The Sun Storage Unified system can run both NAS and SAN solutions, and Sun pulls seriously on its well-respected ZFS (Zettabyte File System) in the Storage 7000 family.

    Unified storage space rivals EMC Corp, NetApp Inc and IBM Corp have so far focused their attention on IT environments that have a strong NAS presence – but they would very much like to manage SAN as well.

    Sun, meanwhile, has put a major emphasis on facilitating the Storage 7000 family to provide universal function storage requirements.
    The major thrust of Sun’s message for the Storage 7000 is that it makes life a lot easier for storage administrators.

    Sun caims the installations process only takes a few minutes, but persists with key courses of action such as thin provisioning, a function which is embedded in ZFS (as logical storage pools can be enlarged or diminished transparently as long as there is sufficient physical storage to carry them).

    Another feature of the Storage 7000 technology that is of benefit to administration is the concept of DTrace, a collection of analysis that permits real-time system diagnostics.

    Engineers at Sun feel that DTrace can significantly advance storage system troubleshooting to a level never seen before in the industry.

    Another aspect of the Sun Storage 7000 is its performance.

    The company appropriately calls it Hybrid Storage Pools, which shares DRAM, read, and write optimized flash devices that work in working in combination with hard disc drives.

    Sun maintains that the innovative use of SSD technology can help flash memory combine with disc technology resulting in a mega performance that is very cost effective.

    While all that is great, Sun Microsystems continues to show a financial downturn having lost more than USD $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2009 that ended in Sept 2008.

    With the ongoing financial crises and global recession, the question remains – how well does the Storage 7000 system fit in with other Sun storage products and how does the company plan to market and sell them in a cost efficient method?

    Only time will tell.

  • Restorepoint Winner of Storage-biz.news' Product of the Year Award


    Tadasoft’s RestorePoint integrated hardware and software back-up solution is the winner of storage-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 award.

    With 45 per cent of the nominations, the solution for network administrators was the clear winner in a field that included Fujitsu, Dell, Compellent, Brioo, Akorri and cloud storage specialists Asankya.

    RestorePoint automatically backs-up and stores the configuration of your network devices and restores it when needed.

    The solution has established itself as a vendor-independent appliance and Tadasoft says it is the first product to address this "commonly overlooked" issue.

    Its simplicity is a major selling factor – it is managed from one convenient central location with an easy to use web interface.

    In collecting the most votes RestorePoint also got some strong endorsements from readers.

    One voter described RestorePoint as "unique", stressing the appliance-based solution’s ability to automatically backup configs from multi-vendor devices.

    "It will also alert the admin if any change has been made to the config and detail this change," said the storage-biz.news reader.

    "The admin can then on the fly roll back the config by restoring the master copy template or one of the other back ups from a previous hour/day/week/month."

    Another factor that garnered support was the fact RestorePoint supports numerous devices, including Cisco, Brocade, Juniper, Blue Coat, Proofpoint and HP Procurve.

    While cost and ease of use were highlighted, one voter pointed to RestorePoint’s ability to increase network management productivity.

    "It can also help towards gaining or maintaining the complex PCI DSS compliance standard," said the voter.

    Among the other nominations, Dell-EqualLogic’s PS Series of virtualized iSCSI SAN were singled out for attention.

    They were described as the clear leader in the midrange (1-500TB) iSCSI SAN space – a market that includes EMC, NetApp, IBM and Hitachi.

    Areas where the PS Series impressed included ease of use, flexibility, performance and overall value.

    Compellent’s SAN was also highly recommended, not least for its space reclamtion offer and being the only SAN in the market with Automated ILM.

    Storage-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.