Tag Archives: Array

Tegile Systems Unveils Next-Generation MASS-Based Flash Array Bringing Powerful, Cost-Effective Features to Market

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Newark, CA (PRWEB) August 14, 2012

Tegile Systems, a pioneer in primary storage de-duplication in virtualized server and desktop environments, today announced innovative enhancements to its high-availability MASS architecture and the extension of its product line with the addition of two new powerful storage arrays, the Zebi HA2400 and Zebi HA2800. Tegiles Metadata Accelerated Storage System (MASS) technology separates metadata from the primary data path and optimizes functions such as de-duplication, compression, RAID and snapshot pointers, allowing for up to 75% capacity savings, while accelerating IO by up to seven times when compared to traditional storage systems.

The major flaw we see in the all-flash arrays introduced in the market is the performance and data reduction claims that are dependent on 100% flash designs, said Rob Commins, vice president of marketing at Tegile Systems. Their cost per GB claims compare with 15,000 RPM-based systems in a RAID 1 or mirrored configuration.

Commins added: Tegile’s MASS architecture enables us to differentiate and deliver performance at or above those all-flash arrays, while including high-capacity disks to address the $ /GB issue others have. All-flash arrays sell in the market at $ 5-10/GB, while Tegile’s MASS based arrays sell well below $ 2/GB. We raise the performance of near-line SAS hard disk drives to rival extremely expensive high-RPM SAS or Fibre Channel drives, thus enabling the acceleration of every storage function within the array.

With MASS, Tegiles Zebi storage system organizes and stores metadata independently to the data on high-speed devices with optimized retrieval paths. IT administrators benefit from top-end disk drive performance without the need to invest in costly storage.

This is an improvement over traditional storage systems which store data and metadata together, with metadata being interspersed with data on disks. Over time, as data is modified, deleted and rewritten, metadata becomes very fragmented. Additionally, certain storage system features, such as de-duplication, can cause metadata to multiply and grow rapidly. Inordinate growth of metadata causes significant deterioration in a systems behavior over time.

Were seeing a dramatic uptick in the number of customers who are deploying or refreshing virtual environments and finding that their legacy storage environments may not meet these new performance requirements at a reasonable cost, said Terri McClure, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. Our recent Lab Validation Report on Tegiles MASS architecture highlighted the fact that Tegiles Zebi arrays were able to provide excellent performance, were extremely flexible and optimized the use of SSD and HDD to enhance IO or throughput performance, while maintaining a very aggressive $ /GB. With this new release, Tegile is enabling customers to significantly improve their legacy storage environments and better meet the new demands imposed by virtual environments.

New FlashVols Maximize Performance

The Tegile MASS architecture has now been enhanced with an all-flash controller and the addition of FlashVols to maximize performance. Now, large and medium enterprise customers who need high-performance and high-availability storage will benefit from flash-grade performance without incurring the costs traditionally associated with top-grade disk drives.

FlashVols are volumes that are pinned in SSD so applications run at maximum performance without the potential for delay due to caching algorithms or tiering polices. Several competitive offerings use sub-volume tiering to address performance spikes found in these types of use cases. These policies are usually set to analyze usage patterns every three hours or migrate data across tiers in off-hours. But by that time, a boot storm may have completed or a spike in sales at an online retailer may have passed. Pinning critical volumes in SSD ensures these types of problems do not occur.

HA2400 and HA2800: Performance, Flexibility, Simplicity and Cost Effectiveness

Tegiles two new storage arrays, the HA2400 and the HA2800, are considerably faster than legacy HDD arrays and significantly less expensive than all solid-state disk-based arrays. Featuring both NAS and SAN connectivity, the HA2400 and the HA2800 are easy-to-use, fully redundant and highly scalable. Additionally, they come complete with built-in snapshot, replication, near-instant recovery and virtualization management features.

Highlights of the HA2400

Tegiles HA2400 enables customers to break through HDD-born performance barriers in order to better manage large-scale VDI projects that often double the number of desktops under management. Featuring a multi-protocol hybrid array with de-duplication and compression that delivers up to 125,000 IOPS, the HA2400 enables organizations to double the number of applications under management.

Highlights of the HA2800

The Tegile Zebi HA2800 is a multi-protocol, all-flash array that can be placed in front of a large pool of hard disk drives to deliver leading performance while not abandoning the aggressive cost constraints customers operate within. It delivers superior performance and can be augmented with expansion chassis to expand capacity up to 146 raw TB and resolve the $ /GB challenge other all-flash arrays cannot address.

At raw capacity, before deduplication and compression, the HA2800 reaches 200,000 IOPS and sells for $ 2.00 per GB, demonstrating significant cost savings over legacy flash systems priced at $ 5-10 per GB. After compression and deduplication, the HA2800 sells for $ 1 per GB.

Desktop virtualization was an important consideration for us as we were planning our server virtualization implementation, said Ben Croxton, IT director, Global Directories, the parent company of U.S.-Yellow Pages. We looked at several hybrid arrays and Tegile won our evaluation hands down because performance was key, yet storage systems from incumbent vendors didnt have the performance we needed. Tegile had the most powerful platform, the richest feature set and the best value for our dollar.

Pricing and Availability

Prices for Tegile Zebi arrays start at $ 60,000. Both the Zebi HA2400 and HA2800 are currently shipping and are priced at:

Aberdeen Releases its New Web-based GUI that Makes it Easy to Identify and Locate Specific Hard Drives in an Array

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Santa Fe Springs, CA (PRWEB) June 09, 2012

Adding, removing, or replacing a hard drive typically rearranges the list, says Yuval Bymel, R&D engineer at Aberdeen. These hard drive changes make it impossible to have a label on the system showing the correct order of the drives at any given time. Under ideal conditions, this may be an adequate solution. But when a drive fails, or if it completely disappears from that list, there is no easy way to identify the slot in which that drive resides.

To help data center and IT managers overcome this hard drive hassle, Aberdeen built its Z-Series line of scalable storage products with its proprietary Web-based GUI that makes it easy to not only identify the hard drive, but also pinpoint its exact location in the array. This GUI goes above and beyond the traditional ZFS system to make hard drive swaps or fixes quicker and easier.

Scalable Storage Products

Aberdeens Z-Series is a line of scalable storage products designed to be customized to an enterprises needs. Whether an enterprise needs to store a few terabytes of data or as much as a petabyte or more, the Z-Series platform can handle it. Aberdeen also made sure these solutions would be ready for future use and offers 10Gb Ethernet or 8Gb Fibre connectivity to the storage solutions as an optional add-on.

The GUI built into Aberdeens Z-Series line of solutions creates an accurate graphical representation of the entire array, letting administrators see the physical location of a servers hard drives without manually searching through the array. When an admin clicks an individual drive, the GUI shows its location on the server itself as well as its physical location within the array. And the GUI will also take any changes an admin has made into account. You can rest assured the GUI matches the servers hard drive slot label and retains that order no matter which drives you use, how many you have, or even if you have to replace a failed drive, Bymel says.

The Z-Series GUI also lets administrators select which drive they want to replace while keeping all of the hard drives in the correct order. An admin can even rearrange the order at any given time or move the drives to another enclosure. Regardless of how the admin chooses to arrange or manage the drives, the Z-Series GUI will keep up and provide the same identification and location information based on the new configuration.

Easier To Use

Aberdeens addition of the Web-based GUI serves to make the Z-Series even easier to use in the data center. The platform is scalable enough to support a wide range of storage needs and can scale to as much as a petabyte of storage or more because the GUI makes it easier to locate, swap out, or move hard drives. Regardless of how large or small an enterprises storage needs, Aberdeen can help with a solution that will relieve hard drive headaches.