Cost-conscious businesses looking to maximize the amount of data storage available might turn to IceWeb and the company's Iplicity platform.
Storage solutions and online cloud computing application
services
provider IceWeb announced the launch of its Iplicity Data Storage
platform, which enables the incorporation of available disk storage
resident in
non-Iplicity-based legacy storage vendor products such as those
produced by EMC, Network Appliance, Hitachi, Equalogic, Hewlett-Packard
and IBM. Storage
solutions are available as NAS (Network Attached Storage), SAN (Storage
Area
Networks), or the company's patent LCCSD (Locally Connected Cloud
Storage Devices).
Capabilities include system-to-system replication, site-to-site
replication (push or pull - to the file level with bandwidth metering),
active virus scanning, integrated search capability, SCSI Target and
Initiator
software. Each of the Iplicity Controller Units is a 3U 16 Bay SAS/SATA
storage
server chassis, populated with high performance Intel processors and
loaded
with connectivity options. To help ensure operating system performance
and
integrity, each Iplicity unit has dual redundant rear accessible high
performance hot-swap SAS drives to service our software.
"Iplicity represents the next generation of data
storage infrastructure," said Gary Dunham, senior vice president of
product development and engineering at IceWeb. "For years, both
SMB and enterprise users of storage products from older legacy vendors
have endured
painful and expensive upgrades, grossly inflated hard drive prices,
overpriced
features and add-on costs for simple capabilities like remote
replication, and
been locked into architectures chosen back when there were, well, quite
frankly, many fewer choices." Dunham said there is a period of consolidation and change
within the networked storage market space, noting this past year alone, storage
players Left Hand and Data Domain were swallowed whole by the status-quo
manufacturers HP and EMC, with rumors that 3Par and others, perhaps Isilon and
Compellent, may soon follow as this consolidation continues. "Make no mistake;
these acquisitions are less about acquiring features and capabilities than they
are about quashing emerging competition, limiting end customer choice and
protecting established turf," he said. "The key question here is: where
are end users who purchased those products to turn for the innovative features
and performance increases they once expected from those cutting edge
manufacturers?" The units also are fitted with hot-swappable redundant power
supplies and fans. Designed with an eye on the company's user-friendly
philosophy, all units ship standard with high performance, independently
manageable 2 port RAID/HBA controllers and six 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet Ports
(which can be bound and aggregated). Additional optional connectivity for 10GB
Ethernet and 4 or 8GB FibreChannel is available as are other customized
connectivity options. "This capability allows users with less flexible storage
deployments to manage space they have available in their existing environment
completely, as if it were directly attached to the Iplicity network storage,
enabling them to take full advantage of features such as unlimited snapshots,
local and remote (push and pull) system, volume and folder replication,
bandwidth consumption management, capabilities to integrate with VMWare and
Citrix Xen, integrated virus scanning, the capability to convert this older
storage into resources available to IceWeb's LCCSD technology," Dunham said. "It's
an intelligent simple choice."
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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