Compellent Aims to Simplify ILM

Network storage vendor Compellent Technologies has introduced an integrated, bundled, preconfigured SAN solution it claims will simplify the process of information lifecycle management.

Company executives said Storage Center QuickStart ILM is the first SAN (storage area network) offering automated tiered storage in a single enclosure.

By automating data classification, movement and tiering, the time and effort of implementing an ILM system will be greatly reduced, according to the company, in Eden Prairie, Minn.

The labor-intensive nature of ILM, which often involves classifying and moving data manually, tends to be a significant hardship, especially on smaller organizations with less IT staff available to dedicate to the process, said David Russell, research vice president for storage technologies and strategies at Gartner, based in Stamford, Conn.

QuickStart ILM works by combining high-performance Fibre Channel drives with lower-cost Fibre Channel drives in one enclosure. The system automatically assigns data to the most appropriate tier of storage based on how often it is used and the importance of the data to the organization.

In addition, QuickStart ILM can migrate data at the block level using metadata to determine which tier of storage will store each block of data.

/zimages/4/28571.gifClick hereto read about what EMC is offering in the way of ILM.

According to Compellent, using this method allows organizations to save more than 50 percent of what they would have spent on storage—the cost difference between storing inactive data on Fibre Channel RAID 10 versus midtier Fibre Channel or SATA (Serial ATA) RAID 5.

There is merit to a strategy that combines traditional midtier storage arrays with a variety of storage software, such as SRM (Storage Resource Management) and data classification, archiving and migration functionality, while simplifying the often cumbersome management of ILM, Russell said, especially for small and midsized companies that need a simpler approach at a better price.

/zimages/4/28571.gifHP buys ILM vendor OuterBay. Read morehere.

“Its another example of how innovation works in the storage market,” he said. “Very often its the smaller companies that drive innovation and bring new concepts to market that later get adopted by the larger vendors.”

StorageCenter QuickStart ILM, which includes a Storage Center SAN with 6TB of storage, is available immediately, starting at $49,500.

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