3PAR Makes Tiered Storage Easier

3PAR has unveiled software that lets users implement tiered storage more easily.

3PAR Dynamic Optimization lets users change RAID protection level, resource utilization, disk type and even location on the disk in a matter of seconds to meet peak demand and practice information lifecycle management (ILM).

Pricing for Dynamic Optimization starts at less than $10,000. Combined with the company’s “Thin Provisioning” utility storage, users can get a 2 1/2 TB high-end system for less than $100,000.

“The barriers are really down,” says 3PAR Director of Product Marketing Geoff Hough. “There’s no prohibition to doing this whatsoever.”

“3PAR was the first with true Thin Provisioning, which has quickly become a ‘must have’ in shops requiring utility capabilities,” states Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group. “Now they raise the bar further by offering Dynamic Optimization — the first real quality of service functions I’ve seen in a modular, enterprise-class array.”

Dynamic Optimization lets administrators convert a data volume from one service level to another within the same 3PAR InServ Storage Server without the need for data migration.

With a single command, users can convert between RAID 10 and RAID 50 with 2+1 to 7+1 data-to-parity ratio, choose between massively-parallel or finely-restricted use of ports, cache, processors, loops and spindles, select data placement on inner or outer tracks of disk platters, or move data between enterprise-class Fibre Channel drives or economical ATA-class drives.

“3PAR Dynamic Optimization means we can optimize storage service levels on demand,” states Mark Douglas, vice president of technology at eHarmony. “This is a far cry from the limitations and complexity required by other optimization approaches that rely on data migration. With Dynamic Optimization, there is no guesswork. Our applications are not impacted and our business runs with greater efficiency.”

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