Storage systems for small-to-medium businesses

LSI Logic has introduced its newest family of storage systems, designed for small-to-medium business (SMB) customers.Storage systems for small-to-medium businesses LSI Logic has introduced its newest family of storage systems, designed for small-to-medium business (SMB) customers. The first models - the Engenio 1333 and 1331 - feature SAS-SAS external RAID arrays for a shared DAS (Direct Attached Storage) infrastructure and are immediately available to LSI OEM partners in both single and dual controller models. The new systems enable growing businesses to reap the benefits of shared storage including consolidation, unified management, data protection features and increased efficiencies within the IT infrastructure.

Managed by Simplicity Storage Manager software, the systems bring an intuitive, task-based management structure that significantly reduces the complexity of installation, configuration, management and diagnostic tasks, along with feature rich capabilities to enable deployment of advanced data protection strategies.

Simplicity software is designed to provide customers with a familiar user experience that allows them to deploy external storage solutions comfortably and quickly.

Once installed, the easy-to-use Simplicity software allows storage systems to be discovered and configured in fewer then 10 'clicks'.

'SMB customers have a diverse set of storage requirements, but the need for affordable external storage that is easy to deploy, manage and scale is consistent across the market,' said Tony Prigmore, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group.

'With the introduction of its new family of Engenio systems, LSI has not only made external storage a viable option, but one that addresses a spectrum of applications through the use of SAS technology'.

The model 1331 and 1333 systems feature a modular design, enabling configured system capacity to be easily matched to initial amounts of storage needed and scale up as storage requirements grow.

Capacity of the model 1331 and 1333 systems ranges from a 2-drive configuration with 146Gbyte of storage to a 48-drive configuration offering 14 TB of storage using 300GB SAS drives.

'With the introduction of our new line of Engenio systems, LSI is the only company in the industry to deliver an end-to-end SAS portfolio that addresses every segment of the market, including the SMB space,' Phil Bullinger, senior vice president, Engenio Storage Group, LSI Logic.

'For SMB customers who need to grow beyond internal storage, our new enterprise-class externalsolutions provide powerful and scalable options that are both affordable and easy to use'.

The multi-ported model 1333 is an ideal entry-level solution for clustered topologies and readily meets the external two-node clustering requirements of end users.

Clustering allows multiple servers to share access to data stored on a single storage system and keeps applications running on a secondary server should the primary fail.

'Application availability is as important to the SMBs as it is to the enterprise; neither can afford the downtime,' said Bala Kasiviswanathan, group product manager for storage at Microsoft.

'Windows Server clustering is a critical tool to keep applications running and to preserve data integrity'.

'With clustering support, the new LSI Simplicity-managed family of storage systems offers our mutual customers an effective means to maintain business continuity'.

LSI offers the industry's broadest portfolio of SAS storage solutions, addressing the SAS infrastructure at every level.

In addition to the new line of storage systems, the LSI SAS family includes the market leading LSISAS1068 SAS controller IC, SAS expander ICs, SAS HBAs, a full line of MegaRAID SAS adapters, and RAID-on-motherboard (ROMB) solutions.

By offering best of breed SAS technologies, assured interoperability, and single vendor support, LSI is the silicon-to-systems supplier of choice for OEMs that want to deliver a broad set of storage solutions.