Modular Storage in the Enterprise: Versatility and Value for Challenging Times

As enterprises continue to look for ways to maximize storage efficiency without sacrificing quality of service, we suggest they take another look at modular storage. Originally conceived as a cost effective storage option for small and medium businesses, its flexibility and versatility have made modular storage an equally good value in enterprise environments.

Large enterprises will always need top tier storage for high-performance, business critical applications. But in a host of situations, modular storage can easily accommodate the needs of the enterprise without breaking the bank.

For example, modular storage makes perfect sense as a second or third tier storage solution, or for virtualizing behind a high-performance system like the Hitachi Universal Storage Platform™.

Many enterprise operations have branch operations scattered throughout the country or around the world, and each of these branches require localized storage. Modular storage integrates well with existing systems, providing an easy-to-manage and reliable solution that requires little additional administrative overhead.

And, every enterprise requires redundant offsite storage to satisfy business continuity and disaster recovery requirements. Again, modular storage offers a cost effective option for second or third data centers.

Because it's a flexible, multi-purpose solution, modular storage can easily be re-purposed from one use to the other. The storage once assigned to a branch office can just as easily work as a backup at a disaster recovery data center or a data replication device if the branch office no longer requires it.

Think of it as the Swiss Army knife of storage: it's flexible, scalable and robust enough to support Microsoft® Exchange Server, VMware, databases and other business applications. Most importantly, it's a sound investment for today's challenging economic environment that will be able to scale once business and data demands pick up again in the future.

Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2500: Maximum Performance for the Enterprise

Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2500 was designed specifically for large and enterprise businesses. It offers the flexibility and value that define modular storage, while providing the power and reliability that larger businesses need. The Hitachi Dynamic Load Balancing Controller ensures outstanding performance and nondisruptive operations, making the 2500 highly suited to VMware environments. It's an ideal choice for large enterprises looking for an easy-to-manage storage solution that provides cost effective performance today and can scale to 480 disk drives in order to meet future demands.

Why Use Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 Systems in VMware Virtualized Environment?

Hitachi modular storage systems work well with VMware for a number of reasons. Here are just a few:

• Virtual machines can leverage additional bandwidth in times of intense usage via Hitachi High-performance NAS platform, powered by BlueArc®
• Highly scalable storage lets you add capacity, connectivity and performance as needed
• Flexible systems allow intermixed SAS and SATA drives that can share the same tray, provide multiprotocol support for both Fibre Channel and iSCSI
• 99.999 percent data availability combined with high reliability

Power Savings Add Up

Remember that savings can come from a number of sources. You can streamline management and administrative tasks by putting numerous systems behind a single pane of glass and you can reduce storage waste by moving to a multitiered, consolidated architecture. But one of the most basic expenses associated with storage is the cost of keeping it cool and keeping it running - the cost of power. The Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family offers a Power Savings Service that reduces energy consumption in data centers by retracting the heads on SATA disk drives or even intelligently spinning down drives that are not active. The internal temperature of the system determines the rate at which system fans operate. Lower energy consumption translates to lower energy bills, which is good for the environment and good for the bottom line.

Learn more

 Datasheet:
Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2500 More...

 White Paper:
Symmetric Active-Active Controller

 Solutions Brief:
Ensuring Cost Effective, High-performance Storage Deployments for Database Applications

 Analyst Report:
Addressing Business Challenges with a Scalable Storage Infrastructure By IDC

 In the Blogs:
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