Copan Adds Deduplication to MAID Arrays

Copan joins EMC, Quantum, Diligent, Sepaton and NetApp in the "dedupe" parade.

Copan Systems joined on Oct. 10 an ever-growing list of storage companies offering deduplication, adding the technology to its virtual tape library solution, the Revolution 300 series, a MAID-based product line.

Deduplication eliminates redundant data—down to sections of individual files—throughout a storage network and enables the system to run faster and more cost-effectively. EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Quantum, Sepaton, Diligent Technologies, Network Appliance—in fact, most storage companies—have joined the "dedupe" parade in recent months.

The Revolution 300 series, designed for managing massive volumes of data, will use FalconStor Softwares well-respected deduplication feature. Copan is the only major distributor to rely on MAID (Massive Array of Idle Disks) architecture, which has the potential to make disk-based storage the archive technology of choice in the future.

MAID products are disk-based archives with unique capabilities that not only minimize power consumption but also prolong the lives of hard drives. The selling point of MAID is that it delivers performance in the hard drive array class when data is requested, yet reduces the amount of energy wasted when archive data is in idle mode. The reduction in power consumption and heat that the MAID model provides puts disk storage almost in the same class as tape for energy efficiency.

Resource Library:

Click here to read more about MAID arrays and their advantages.

As utility costs and the demand for rapid data access continue to rise, MAID could become an even more compelling option for long-term archiving.

At any given time, only about 25 percent of the disks in a MAID archive are active, with the other 75 percent in an idle state. A MAID system will consume about one-fourth to one-fifth the amount of power of a standard hard drive-based archive, depending on how often data is accessed.

"By adding enterprise-class data deduplication capabilities to the MAID platform, Copans offering can eliminate redundant data, offering customers cost savings that have been previously unavailable with disk storage systems," said Copan Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development Jon Mellon, in Longmont, Colo.

The MAID-deduplication combination of the Revolution 300T provides secure access to more than 6 petabytes of persistent data within a single chassis at a price per GB below traditional tape systems, Mellon said—as low as 25 cents per gigabyte.

"There has perhaps been no hotter category of storage than data deduplication over the last year, and its merits are well documented. By adding MAID into this equation, Copan Systems is redefining the storage economics of managing persistent data, particularly for the needs of large enterprises," said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst for Taneja Group.

"Copan is uniquely positioned to help enterprise customers realize the dramatic effect this combination can deliver, further strengthening the space, power and overall cost savings organizations are now able to achieve," Taneja said.

The new Revolution 300 series arrays offer the following features:

Capacity: With the introduction of 750GB drives, the overall raw capacity has been increased to 672TB per chassis.

Scalability: The new data deduplication capabilities offer effective usable capacity that can exceed 6PB, meeting the persistent data requirements of large corporations.

Flexibility: Customers can now house multiple "personalities" (such as both VTL and regular arrays) within a single chassis, providing data management, power and cooling benefits. It also serves as a platform for future enhancements that move data from one persistent data product to another, Mellon said.

Performance: Rack controller performance has been improved to increase archive performance and to dramatically increase the throughput of data being compressed. Users now will be able to directly connect into 4GB Fibre Channel in the data center, Mellon said.

The Revolution 300 series products will be generally available on Oct. 15.

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