eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Storage appliance specialist Astute Networks announced the expansion of the ViSX family of storage systems offering data protection and a multi-level cell (MLC) flash offering that is aimed at small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) and small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
With pricing starting at $32,000, the ViSX Performance Storage Appliance offers organizations a choice of either lower-cost MLC flash or higher write endurance eMLC flash, and the latest version of ViSX is expandable to 45.6 terabytes of raw storage capacity within a single 2U enclosure. When deployed with ViSX Performance Dedupe, the effective capacity can exceed more than 250TB. Flash storage modules are available in 400GB, 800GB and 1.9TB capacities, which can be mixed and matched within the same ViSX 2U appliance.
“When it comes to performance-sensitive applications, all flash storage that is priced comparable to disk-based storage is the ‘holy grail’ solution that customers of every size are seeking,” Arun Taneja, founding and consulting analyst of IT analytics firm Taneja Group, said in a statement. “As we now know, this is easier said than done, especially if one expects performance to stay constant under all conditions. Astute appears to be the only storage company that offers a compelling and affordable all-flash storage solution that is specifically designed for the midsized and small-business markets.”
Astute also supports comprehensive synchronous and asynchronous replication to increase data availability for applications. ViSX Replicator software, which helps ensure business continuity by providing local and distance replication while maintaining application and data integrity, can be deployed in a local or remote redundant configuration for increased overall data availability.
“Midsized IT organizations tell us that they want a robust all-flash storage solution that is non-disruptive to their existing infrastructure and delivers a compelling combination of high capacity, high data availability and random IOPS [input/output operations per second] performance at a truly affordable price,” Len Rosenthal, senior vice president of marketing for Astute, said in a statement. “Our ViSX performance storage appliances break the price-per-capacity barrier of solid-state flash and are the obvious choice for iSCSI SAN users that want to exploit the tremendous performance and cost of ownership benefits of solid-state storage.”
According to a report earlier this month from research firm IDC, the use of solid-state storage (SSS) in conjunction with solid-state drives (SSDs) will play an important role in transforming performance as well as use cases for enterprise application data. Additionally, pricing declines in the underlying SSD media are dropping the system dollar-per-gigabyte prices, making the high-performance storage technology more affordable and appealing to a broader storage market, the report noted.