HDS Unveils Diskless NSC55 Controller

HDS seeks to help customers better manage and maximize their existing heterogeneous storage assets without being forced to purchase additional storage capacity to keep pace with exploding data volumes.

Harnessing the capabilities of its TagmaStore storage virtualization engine into a downsized offering targeted at the midrange enterprise audience, Hitachi Data Systems on April 24 will announce the availability of its Hitachi TagmaStore Network Storage Controller model NCS55 "diskless" version.

By separating the commodity media—or disks—from the Network Storage Controller intelligent control unit, HDS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, seeks to help customers to better manage and maximize their existing heterogeneous storage assets without being forced to purchase additional storage capacity to keep pace with exploding data volumes, said Claus Mikkelsen, chief scientist for Santa Clara, Calif.-based HDS.

"The feedback weve gotten from a lot of potential [midsize] customers was, I dont need more capacity, but I like this virtualization thing. Many folks are only running 20 to 30 percent utilization in their systems," said Mikkelsen.

"[The NC55 diskless version] removes restrictions and changes the internal storage architecture so it doesnt need more disk."

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Mikkelsen said the flexibility and scalability features of Hitachi TagmaStore Network Storage Controller Model NSC55 diskless version are important, since the box can be configured with internal disk later on.

That way if customers buy the new slimmed-down TagmaStore and virtualize their storage line, they can dynamically move data over to internally populated disk when the time is right.

By attaching the HDS NSC55 diskless product to existing IT storage wares and software, storage administrators can apply HDS TagmaStore virtualization capabilities—including the ability to leverage Hitachi ShadowImage In-System replication, HiCommand Tiered Storage Manager Software, and TrueCopy remote data replication—toward the migration, management and copying of data across interconnected storage tiers from a single centralized location.

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The HDS NSC55 diskless version can manage up to 16 petabytes of externally attached storage and support midrange storage systems from large scale storage vendors such as EMC, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and parent company Hitachi.

In terms of specifications, the new HDS box offers a maximum cache of 64GB, a maximum internal bandwidth of 12.1GB per second, mirrored cache and heterogeneous data replication.

The system is powered by 32 multi-processors and built to handle intensive I/O workloads, noted Mikkelsen.

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