A co-developed, co-branded HDS/NetApp 'Enterprise NAS Gateway' is now available, according to the storage system vendor.
Fanie van Rensburg, MD of local HDS distributor, Shoden Data Systems Explains: "The gateway enables customers to consolidate disparate SAN, NAS and DAS islands into a common open storage pool under the HDS HiCommand Management Framework."
"The convergence of NAS and SAN is a clear trend in the market," comments Tony Prigmore, senior analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "These two storage companies have come together to provide a solution that will be beneficial to customers seeking to add the power of a high-performance storage system like the Lightning 9900V Series to their NAS environment."
According to John McArthur, Group VP, Worldwide Storage Research IDC, HDS has demonstrated its commitment to the NAS market with this new product. "By partnering with Network Appliance, they have produced a solution that allows customers to consolidate the management and support of their NAS and SAN environments."
Customers can use the HDS NetApp Enterprise NAS Gateway in a variety of storage architectures to provide better storage asset utilisation, consolidate storage resources, or simplify the management of complex storage deployments for a variety of technical and business applications. For customers who have deployed Fibre Channel SANs, the addition of a NAS gateway allows data accessibility to a broader range of servers and applications and enables the sharing of data across wider corporate networks.
The HDS NetApp Enterprise NAS Gateway is a special-purpose NAS server that can attach directly, or through a Fibre Channel SAN fabric, to external Hitachi Freedom Storage systems rather than relying on in-the-server storage. The solution thus leverages customers' existing investments in enterprise-level storage and SAN infrastructures to provide scalable, high-performance file access services using inexpensive Ethernet connections.
The resulting consolidation of storage maximises flexibility in planning storage growth and improves storage utilisation. The result is reduced operational costs through vastly simplified enterprise data management, improved data protection, and greater disaster preparedness.
Philips Medical Systems, manufacturer of advanced X-ray equipment, MRI and CT scanners, already familiar with Network Appliance technology, chose an Hitachi Lightning 9970V in combination with a NetApp FAS940c because of its reliability, scalability and SAN/NAS connectivity. "The performance and ease of installation were beyond our expectations," says Philips Medical Systems Unix systems manager Harry den Harink.
"A first measurement showed the performance of the NAS solution to be three times faster than the current production environment. Also, the cluster fail over set up and tests appeared to be very easy and functioned without noticeable interruption to the users. We believe this consolidated NAS/SAN environment is the right choice for further expansion of a reliable, manageable, scalable and high performance storage platform."
Availability
The NAS Gateway will be available exclusively through Hitachi Data Systems and selected resellers. The products within the HDS NetApp Enterprise NAS Gateway are included in the gFiler series. The GF940 and GF960 (and clustered versions) scale in capacity to 48TB, attach to the Hitachi Freedom Storage Lightning 9900V Series systems and are available immediately. The GF825 and clustered version of the GF825 scale in capacity to 6TB, attach to Thunder 9500V Series systems, and will be available on 30 June 2003.
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With offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Shoden Data Systems (Pty) Ltd is the sole distributor for Hitachi Data Systems in SA. In addition, Shoden Data Systems is the sole distributor of INRANGE Technologies Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of Channel Extenders, Fibre Channel and ESCON/FICON directors.
Shoden Data Systems is also a Veritas Premier Partner and provides integrated, managed, best-of-breed storage area network solutions to the marketplace. Based on more than 200 collective years of experience in the service, support and marketing of Hitachi products, Shoden Data Systems uses its intellectual capital and industry-leading products to provide customers with total solutions in the storage, enterprise servers and connectivity arenas. The following offerings are available:
1.Storage - the HDS Freedom storage range, including Lightning 9900 and 9500.
2.Connectivity - the Inrange FC/9000 Fibre Channel/ FICON Director, ESCON Directors and Channel Extenders.
3.Servers - Fujitsu Siemens PrimePower range of servers.
Hitachi Data Systems
Hitachi Data Systems is committed to enabling organisations worldwide to exploit the full potential of information. By following and deploying our TrueNorth strategy, we provide customers with a broad range of storage solutions to simplify, protect and optimise their information infrastructures. Our offerings include enterprise and modular storage systems and software, professional services, fully complemented by best-of-breed products through industry alliances. With 2 700 employees, Hitachi Data Systems conducts business through direct sales and resellers in the public, government and private sectors in over 170 countries on six continents. Its customers include more than 50% of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://www.eu.hds.com.
Hitachi, Ltd
Hitachi, Ltd, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 320 000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2001 (ended 31 March 2002) consolidated sales totalled 7 994 billion yen ($60.1 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.
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