Windows Storage Server 2008 Appliances Hit the Street!

The first Windows Storage Server 2008- based products have just released from HP this week, here is an excerpt from their blog:

“The new HP StorageWorks X1000 and X3000 Network Storage Systems enable customers to easily manage and optimize their storage capacity by consolidating file and block data into a unified storage solution. These new solutions increase performance by up to 30 percent over previous HP file and unified storage solutions.  As a result, companies can reduce costs and simplify data management by improving capacity optimization of storage resources.”

The business-value tagline:  “Delivers Windows-powered unified network storage that is easy to install, easy to manage, and easy to expand to your small, medium, or workgroup IT environment.“

The X3000:      

HP has done a good job articulating the key benefits of their solution:

Get more for your money

• A single, centralized storage system
• Multi-protocol optimized file serving

Microsoft iSCSI Software Target included

• iSCSI target is included in every box, I think that is awesome!
• Host storage for applications like Microsoft Exchange and SQL, or for Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware deployments.

Storage-specific tools and features included

• Get Quotas, File Screening, Storage Reporting, Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshots, and Distributed File System (DFS) Replication—all at no extra cost.

Print server support

• X1000 Network Storage Systems host print services too, offering consolidation benefits to your Windows print environment.

Do more with fewer resources

• Be up and sharing storage in minutes, not hours
• The operating system is pre-installed and user storage is easy to provision with HP X1000 Automated Storage Manager, so you can add storage to your network quickly and safely.

HP X1000 Automated Storage Manager (HP ASM)

• Create, migrate, manage, and protect file shares (NAS) and application storage (iSCSI Target) without the need for storage expertise.
• Automated ‘best practice’ logic setup storage without your needing to know industry-established best practices. HP ASM is like having a storage expert in the box.

Spend less time and effort managing files

• A consolidated and unified shared storage system means you have one thing to manage, expand, and protect.
• Get more space using file deduplication:  Single Instance Storage (SIS) recovers up to 35% of disk capacity by reducing the number of redundant files.

Familiar management look and feel

• If you've used Microsoft Management Console (MMC) to manage a Windows server, you're probably already familiar with how to manage X1000 Network Storage Systems.

Protect and optimize your investment

• HP ProLiant platform
  Relax — your investment is protected because you're not locked into proprietary hardware. And you can take advantage of built-in functionality like Integrated Lights-Out2 that lets you manage and troubleshoot remotely. X1000 models integrate with HP SIM and support ProLiant Support Pack.

Industry-standard components and interconnects

• X1000 Network Storage Systems feature Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processors, support for SATA or SAS internal hot plug hard drives, and easy external SAS expansion with HP StorageWorks MSA enclosures. There's also an X1000 BladeSystem storage solution (X1800sb).

Seamless integration into your environment

• They're running Windows, so they integrate natively (not by emulation) into your Active Directory and DFS environments, and run your favorite antivirus, backup, and storage management applications.

Optional data services that integrate with HP ASM

• Backup to disk, tape, or other removable media with Data Protector Express Software, and replicate data on a scheduled basis to another system using HP Storage Mirroring Software.

All I have to say is WOW!

They have done a great job with this new product and I think it will be a big hit. Having the iSCSI Software Target standard on every box is a game-changer! We did a research study around NAS appliances and most people (over 80%) bought a unified storage device when they purchased a NAS device, so in reality NAS = unified now and it is part of the standard offering for most appliances.  When I talk about Network Attached Storage (NAS), I can finally free my mind from thinking about “File” vs. “Block” storage.

We are going to see a bunch of solutions coming out with this new NAS platform and I will post links as soon as they are available.  If you know of a solution that just came out, drop me a line and I’ll post it!

Thanks,
Scott M. Johnson
Program Manager
Windows Storage Server
NAS Appliances