Hitachi Expands Modular Storage Consolidation Offerings

Hitachi has announced the Freedom Storage Thunder 9500 V Series storage systems. Setting a January release date, the company says the product are optimal for small-to-medium scale consolidation

The Thunder 9500 V Series features a virtualization assist layer to ease storage management and lessen resource demands. The virtualization layer is meant to allow administrators to mix heterogeneous servers on a single port and provide security to the Logical Unit (LUN) level through Host Storage Domains. Hitachi says simplifying storage infrastructure through smaller SAN configurations, fewer switches, Fibre Channel cables and host bus adapters, virtualization further lowers total cost of ownership and accelerates return on investment.

The Thunder 9500 V Series is available in several models. All are based on Hitachi’s Hi-PER Architecture and share the same microcode and cabinetry.

• The Thunder 9570V rackmountable system delivers up to
  4GB cache, four 2Gb/sec ports and 224 drives (32 TB) per
  system. The 9570V is aimed at consolidation, as the centralized storage system
  in medium to large businesses, or in distributed or
  departmental deployments in large companies.
• The Thunder 9531V, Thunder 9532V, and Thunder
  9533V systems are available in pre-configured, specially
  priced storage decks. These models, ranging from 360GB to 1TB
  in capacity, can be upgraded to the Thunder 9570V storage
  system.

Hitachi plans to release more systems in this product line throughout the next year.