EqualLogic Aims High

EqualLogic has overhauled its iSCSI SAN platform to add a number of new features aimed at high-end users.

Version 3.0 of EqualLogic’s PS Series storage array firmware allows multiple pools of storage in a single SAN for flexible data segmentation. The refresh also coincides with the release of EqualLogic’s new high-capacity PS400E, which uses 750 GB Barracuda ES hard drives from Seagate.

By allowing multiple pools of storage in a single SAN, each pool can be configured with capacity and performance characteristics to serve particular business or application needs, and all pools are managed from a single interface. Storage pools also allow data segmentation within the SAN by application, organization or location for flexibility and control, EqualLogic says.

Other new features include automatic data placement and load balancing; transparent data migration; and “consistency groups” that deliver snapshots of multiple volumes across arrays and pools, creating backups of related information for instant recovery of complete data sets.

Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst at StorageIO, said EqualLogic “continues to move in the right direction” in its battle with the likes of LeftHand and NetApp by “focusing more on adding enterprise-class functionality, scalability, reliability, virtualization and performance, while simplifying management and use without enterprise-class prices.”

Schulz said features such as cross-array pooling to isolate workloads and applications and implement tiered storage “should be a welcome upgrade for existing customers and open the door to new customers.”

And cross-volume, cross-array data consistency and coherency for data protection is “something normally associated with top-end enterprise storage systems,” Schulz said.

Still, Schultz said EqualLogic needs to add support for additional drive types such as high-performance SASand SATA. 10Gb Ethernet will also become more of an issue for mid- to upper-end iSCSI vendors and customers who require greater performance and lower response time for time-sensitive applications, he said.

Back To Enterprise Storage Forum

Paul Shread
Paul Shread
eSecurity Editor Paul Shread has covered nearly every aspect of enterprise technology in his 20+ years in IT journalism, including an award-winning series on software-defined data centers. He wrote a column on small business technology for Time.com, and covered financial markets for 10 years, from the dot-com boom and bust to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. He holds a market analyst certification.
Get the Free Newsletter!
Subscribe to Cloud Insider for top news, trends & analysis
This email address is invalid.
Get the Free Newsletter!
Subscribe to Cloud Insider for top news, trends & analysis
This email address is invalid.

Latest Articles

DRAM SSDs vs. DRAM-less SSDs: What You Need to Know

Solid-state hard drives (SSDs) come in various form factors and a wide range of capacities, but another way to differentiate among them is whether...

What is PCIe 5.0?

This article explains what PCIe generation 5.0 is, how it affects SSDs and other storage devices, when and and when not to upgrade, and what the costs of PCIe 5.0 SSDs are.

What is Flash? NAND vs NOR

This article compares NAND and NOR types of flash storage and highlights which is better for different use cases.