 Massive data growth has implications for the entire enterprise, but it especially affects storage. With the proliferation of virtual server environments and remote offices as well as the desire for tiered storage capabilities in larger organizations, companies are looking for more cost-effective ways to store and protect data.
“Companies of every size are battling some sort of storage issue that requires an affordable solution,” says Charles Vallhonrat, a Marketing Manager for HP. “Many of these companies are embracing storage consolidation through the use of a SAN to maximize capacity usage. But for small to medium sized companies or enterprises focused on tier two or three data, cost becomes a key consideration.”
Most administrators highlight four common challenges. They need to minimize downtime for key applications including Oracle® and Exchange®, and eliminate the need for individual storage solutions in the growing number of remote offices.
The increase in virtual servers also creates demand for storage that can keep pace with the power of the server and deliver better throughput, performance and availability. And larger enterprises are looking to decrease the cost of data management by adopting tiered storage for non-critical data.
HP has introduced a new generation of Modular Smart Arrays (MSA) to offer dedicated, low-cost block storage for small application environments, remote offices and as tier two or three storage for enterprise customers. The MSAs are designed to help companies centralize storage, increase management efficiency and reduce business downtime.
Stemming the losses
When Mark Ross, Associate Director of Technical Services, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, viewed the beta of the MSA2000, he was interested immediately. Currently, Ross runs three MSA1500s in his environment, and was looking to determine the best replacement option as the school’s technology evolved.
“The MSA2000 is everything that the 1500 was, but it’s faster and more scalable with improved fault tolerance,” says Ross. “For us, that’s a huge win. We can store more data, connect more hosts and enable very fast access to large amounts of data. And that gives me great confidence for the future, especially when I consider the fact that since we moved to centralized storage, we haven’t experienced any data loss at all.”
The MSA2000 comes in two versions. The MSA 2000fc features a high-performance 4Gb Fibre Channel connected array and enables users to grow storage up to 14.4TB SAS or 36TB SATA, supporting up to 64 hosts for Fibre Channel attach. The MSA 2000i features a 1Gb Ethernet iSCSI connected array and enables users to grow storage up to the same 14.4TB SAS or 36TB SATA, supporting up to 16 hosts for iSCSI attach.
“Beyond the capacity and scalability, the MSA2000 provides high fault tolerance through RAID 6,” says Steve Petersen, HP’s Product Manager for the MSA2000 in the Americas. “Any two drives can fail without affecting data integrity. For large enterprises that use MSA2000 for tier two or three storage, this is especially critical because they are usually relying on large SATA drives for back up. SATA drives aren’t high performance, so having that extra level of data protection in the event of a rebuild contributes to greater data availability.”
Petersen also highlights MSA2000’s unique cache design, incorporating flash memory. Many storage offerings, especially those in remote office locations, rely on battery back up in the event of a power failure. With the MSA2000’s cache design, it keeps enough power to write the data into flash memory. It’s a better way of preserving the data in cache.
The MSA2000 also reduces the need for specialized IT skills. For example, one administrator can use the software built into each array to configure and manage geographically dispersed storage units, eliminating the need to configure the array from each connected server.
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