Compellent Unites SAN with NAS to Expand Reach of Enterprise Storage.Company Partners with Microsoft to Deliver Compellent Storage Center SAN with NAS (1) See network access server. (2) (Network Attached Storage) A specialized file server that connects to the network. A NAS device contains a slimmed-down operating system and a file system and processes only I/O requests by supporting the popular to Lower Storage Costs, Simplify Management at the File Level EDEN PRAIRIE Eden Prairie A city of eastern Minnesota, a residential suburb of Minneapolis. Population: 57,300. , Minn. -- Compellent is adding file server consolidation capabilities to its storage area network with a new network-attached storage See NAS. system introduced today. The new Compellent Storage Center SAN version 3.6 with NAS now supports both block- and file-level storage access to simplify management and reduce overall storage cost and complexity. Storage Center with NAS enables growing and large organizations with file serving needs to attain Compellent's enterprise-wide storage management benefits, including rapid recovery, continuous snapshots, automated tiered storage Automated Tiered Storage is a product from Compellent. It stores information in a database in such way, that information searched for more often is moved to a different tier, producing faster search results. , thin provisioning Thin provisioning[1] is a mechanism that applies to large-scale centralized computer disk storage systems, SANs, and storage virtualization systems. Thin provisioning allows space to be easily allocated to servers, on a just-enough and just-in-time basis. and remote replication. Deployment is simplified by booting the diskless NAS system from the SAN using Compellent-provided setup tools. Compellent collaborated with Microsoft to marry the file sharing Copying files from one computer to another. See peer-to-peer network, file sharing protocol and file and printer sharing. features of Windows[R] Storage Server 2003 R2 with Compellent's dynamic block architecture to deliver a unified, highly scalable platform for storage consolidation. With file de-duplication, Storage Center with NAS stores only one copy of a file even though several copies of the same file might exist, such as an e-mail attachment A file that rides along with an e-mail message. The attached file can be of any type. E-mail programs make it easy to attach a file. For example, in Eudora, all you do is select Attach from the Message menu, browse through the folder hierarchy to find the file you want and then double , which can save more than 35 percent in disk space and further reduce storage management costs. From the NAS Compellent also enables administrators to manage SAN volumes and multiple Fibre Channel or iSCSI connections to the Compellent SAN to enhance system management and availability. "Microsoft's Windows Storage Server A Windows-based network attached storage (NAS) operating system from Microsoft. Originally released as Windows Powered NAS, Windows Storage Server provides file and print sharing, but does not execute applications. As of Windows Storage Server 2003, it also stores Exchange Server data. See NAS. 2003 R2 platform is designed to enable end-to-end enterprise storage solutions that are easy to deploy, reduce storage complexity and scale to meet the needs of any organization," said Bala Kasiviswanathan, director of storage solutions marketing at Microsoft. "Our partnership with Compellent and the seamless integration An addition of a new application, routine or device that works smoothly with the existing system. It implies that the new feature or program can be installed and used without problems. Contrast with "transparent," which implies that there is no discernible change after installation. with the Storage Center SAN delivers the ease of use that small enterprises demand, as well as the enterprise-class availability and performance that larger organizations require." As with other product offerings, Compellent Copilot services will serve as a single contact point for worldwide support of Storage Center with NAS systems. Storage Consolidation to Reduce Costs and Complexity Data393, a managed hosting and IT infrastructure provider, recognizes the benefits of pairing Windows-based NAS with the block-level intelligence of the Compellent SAN. The Englewood, Colo.-based firm provides services for its growing community of corporate clients, such as Photobucket, the photo-sharing Web site, and Auto Revo, the vehicle marketing firm. "Compellent's ability to automatically move inactive data to lower-tier storage results in significant storage and administrative savings, which exceeded any other platform we evaluated--including traditional unified SAN and NAS vendors," said Steve Merkel, chief information officer at Data393. "We believe Storage Center with NAS can potentially lower our costs even further while providing the flexibility to scale our offerings to match the growing needs of our customers." Compellent's hallmark scalability and technology independence provides investment protection and flexibility. Customers can purchase the SAN together with the NAS to support file-level disk capacity, or delay the NAS system purchase until file-level management is required. The diskless NAS server boots from the virtualized Storage Center storage system, containing either Fibre Channel or SATA (Serial ATA) A serial version of the ATA (IDE) interface, which has been the de facto standard hard disk interface for desktop PCs for more than two decades. The original Parallel ATA (PATA) interface was launched in 1986. hard drives, to further simplify management and reduce storage acquisition costs. "Compellent is committed to teaming with industry partners such as Microsoft to reduce storage costs and make administration as simple as possible," said Bruce Kornfeld, Compellent vice president of marketing. "The unified Compellent SAN with NAS provides customers with the flexibility to manage and recover both block and file-level data from a single centralized storage platform." Industry-leading Automated Tiered Storage with File Level Management Storage Center with NAS is the industry's only platform to extend block-level automated tiered storage to file management. With Compellent Data Progression, data is automatically classified and moved to the appropriate tier of storage based on frequency of access. Frequently accessed data is retained on high-performance storage drives and infrequently accessed data is stored on lower-cost storage devices, which can significantly reduce disk expenditures. Additional Compellent Storage Center with NAS features include: * Storage Center SAN version 3.6 with options for 4 Gb-Fibre Channel controllers and 750 GB SATA hard drives * Single Instance Storage (SIS) through Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 to automatically provide data de-duplication at the file level, saving disk space and reducing management costs * Compellent NAS boot-from-SAN setup DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. to speed deployment * Storage virtualization to speed performance and allow file-level provisioning from a single, shared pool * Integrated snapshots and remote replication to help ensure continuous availability and speed disaster recovery * 1U NAS platform can be clustered up to eight nodes to deliver high availability. * NAS hardware: single dual-core 2.4 GHz processor, 4 GB memory, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports, dual-port 4 Gb-FC or dual-port iSCSI connection, redundant power and cooling, and diskless storage (booted from Compellent SAN) * NAS software: Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition operating system; integrated Multipath I/O (MPIO MPIO Multipath Input/Output MPIO Multi-Play Internet Audio MPIO Multi Path Input Output ) for FC or iSCSI failover and Virtual Disk Service (VDS (Virtual DMA Services) A programming interface that lets bus mastering devices cooperatively manage DMA channels. ) for volume management; CIFS (Common Internet File System) The file sharing protocol used in Windows. It evolved out of the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol in DOS, which is why the terms CIFS/SMB and SMB/CIFS are sometimes seen. The word "Internet" in the CIFS name has little relevance. , NFS (Network File System) The file sharing protocol in a Unix network. This de facto Unix standard, which is widely known as a "distributed file system," was developed by Sun. See file sharing protocol and WebNFS. NFS - Network File System , HTTP HTTP in full HyperText Transfer Protocol Standard application-level protocol used for exchanging files on the World Wide Web. HTTP runs on top of the TCP/IP protocol. , and HTTPS (1) (HyperText Transport Protocol Secure) The protocol for accessing a secure Web server. Using HTTPS in the URL instead of HTTP directs the message to a secure port number rather than the default Web port number of 80. protocols * As a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, Compellent complies with the Designed for Windows program The new Storage Center version 3.6 with NAS is immediately available through Compellent's international network of solution providers. Prices start at about $35,950 with a diskless NAS platform running Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, Fibre Channel connection and 4 TB of storage capacity, excluding hardware or software maintenance. Adding a Compellent NAS platform to an existing Storage Center SAN starts at $9,995. Compellent NAS platforms with iSCSI will be available in early August. For additional product information on Storage Center with NAS visit www.compellent.com/nas, and for photography visit www.compellent.com/photos. About Compellent Compellent delivers affordable, modular storage solutions exclusively through business partners that provide companies of all sizes enterprise storage capabilities without big system costs or complexities. For more information, visit www.compellent.com. |
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