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.”