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HDS G series arrays get native NAS and cloud as a storage tier
VSP G series enterprise hybrid flash arrays see addition of native NAS functionality on a controller card plus cloud as a storage tier via Hitachi Content Platform
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has announced native NAS functionality for its VSP G400, G600 and G800 enterprise storage arrays, as well as the ability to use the cloud as a storage tier.
NAS functionality is now available in those G series arrays via a card that slots into the storage controller backplane. Previously, NAS could be added via discrete modules that occupied 12U in a rack. Now, that’s cut down to 5U.
HDS also claims an increase in NAS input/ouput (I/O) performance of around 80%, with up to 1.4 million input/output per second (IOPS).
Bob Plumridge, CTO of Europe, the Middle East and Africa at HDS, said: “We see much fewer customers running only one protocol on their storage. The days of a machine only running Fibre Channel, for example, are over.”
HDS G series arrays run spinning disk hard disk drives (HDDs), as well as flash, in custom modules made for HDS. These come in 3.2TB and 6.4TB capacity. Spinning disk drives are 1.2TB and 6TB capacity, both running at 7,200rpm.
Plumridge said HDS rarely sells any of the more costly 15,000rpm HDDs for the G series because the decreasing cost of flash has made them unattractive.
“15K drives have virtually gone with the price of flash coming down. When 10,000rpm drives make no sense anymore, we’ll see a storage architecture comprised of flash, 7,200rpm drives plus archive and public cloud,” he said.
Read more about hybrid flash storage
- Will 2015 be remembered as the last big year of hybrid flash storage? The Big Six offer hybrid flash, mostly based on HDD-era designs, and innovation has slowed as all-flash rises
- Startups are as active as ever in the hybrid flash market, with new entrants to the fray since last year, but all-flash is making inroads too.
Storage can be provisioned as file access (NAS) or block access (SAN) in the same G series array, split at the level of the Raid group.
HDS also announced cloud optimisation for G series arrays. This allows the customer to migrate data to and use HDS’s Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) object storage as a storage tier. HCP is an object storage environment and has connectors that can move data to Amazon S3 or Microsoft Azure.
