LeftHand Networks Makes Open iSCSI SANs a Reality with IBM System x3650 Support
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BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 30 / -- LeftHand Networks® has expanded its open iSCSI SAN portfolio with support for IBM System x3650 servers. The combination of the IBM System x3650 server and LeftHand Networks' SAN/iQ® software provides customers an easy-to-deploy SAN with unprecedented scalability, high availability, reliability and performance. LeftHand Networks' open iSCSI SANs are ideally suited for use with server consolidation and virtualization projects, Microsoft application environments, Lotus Notes and Domino applications and disaster recovery solutions.
Leading the open iSCSI SAN market, LeftHand Networks is the only vendor to break free from the proprietary approach to storage and offer customers the choice and flexibility to purchase enterprise-class x86 servers powered by LeftHand's SAN/iQ platform. Customers can select from a variety of industry standard hardware platforms best suited to meet performance, capacity, reliability, and budget requirements while also protecting current network storage investments.
"IT professionals can benefit from solutions that build upon and leverage prior investments in storage systems hardware and network infrastructure," said Natalya Yezhkova, research manager, compliance storage, at IDC. "The combination of IBM's System x3650 servers with LeftHand's SAN/iQ software provides customers with a solution that is competitive on price, performance and scale by leveraging the latest multicore processors. LeftHand's open iSCSI SAN solution supports a wide selection of platforms to meet the storage requirements of various applications."
Open iSCSI SANs
Open iSCSI SAN, following in the path of the open-systems server market, incorporates enterprise-class x86 servers and support for technical industry standards though an open, modular software platform. Open iSCSI SAN describes the emerging shift in the SAN marketplace to provide customers with interoperability, choice, cost-effectiveness, and performance in their datacenters.
"LeftHand Networks has won another major victory for open iSCSI SAN solutions by bundling the IBM System x3650 with its SAN/iQ management software," said Steve Otto, vice president of technology solutions at Sysix. "The IBM x3650 is a business-critical server that minimizes deployment and support costs."
LeftHand Networks delivers on the promise of open iSCSI SANs specifically through:
o Compliance with industry standards such as TCP/IP, the iSCSI protocol
specification, and Ethernet networking. Through the support of
industry standards and existing skill sets, enterprises can
cost-effectively deploy and manage open iSCSI SANs.
o Support of enterprise-class x86-based servers: market leading x86
server vendors are now delivering servers capable of serving as
optimized storage modules. With open iSCSI SANs, LeftHand Networks
customers are able to take advantage of the large R&D investments of
companies such as HP and IBM, who are continually working to drive down
power consumption and cooling cost, while increasing density, product
longevity and adding innovative capabilities such as 10 Gigabit
Ethernet. Open iSCSI SAN customers can seamlessly incorporate the
latest in x86 server technology alongside their existing investments,
removing the need to perform costly monolithic storage systems
upgrades.
o Unprecedented scalability, high availability, reliability and
performance through the SAN/iQ software platform: the SAN/iQ platform
provides all of the services necessary for storage provisioning, data
protection, management and availability in the most demanding
datacenter environments.
The breadth of SAN/iQ powered platforms includes the IBM x3650, HP ProLiant DL380, LeftHand NSM 260 and NSM 160.
The IBM Server x3650
Utilizing SAS drive technology and the latest dual core processor technology from Intel, the x3650 provides the foundation for enterprise-class iSCSI SANs. By virtualizing all system resources, including processing power and SAS drive performance, SAN/iQ transforms multiple x3650's into an enterprise-class iSCSI SAN ideally suited for I/O intensive workloads created by virtualized server environments, Lotus Notes and Domino applications, Microsoft Exchange Server and transactional databases including SQL and Oracle. Future proofed with expansion capabilities, the x3650 system is 10 Gigabit Ethernet ready. The IBM Server x3650 will be deployed as a storage module within a LeftHand Networks clustered SAN.
LeftHand Networks SAN/iQ Platform
SAN/iQ is the industry's first and only open software platform architected from the ground up to deliver iSCSI SANs with enterprise-class features running on x86 server hardware. The SAN/iQ platform greatly simplifies storage provisioning, management and data availability.
The patented distributed architecture of the SAN/iQ platform enables:
o Ability to scale storage capacity, disk performance and network
throughput with each additional clustered storage server node;
o Advanced data protection, availability and performance with LeftHand
Networks unique Network RAID technology;
o Enhanced disaster recovery solutions via synchronous data replication,
snapshots and remote copy;
o Optimized volume management and storage utilization through thin
provisioning and auto-grow functionality;
o Easy-to-use centralized management of all SAN resources, regardless of
location.
Pricing and Availability
SAN/iQ software is currently available through authorized LeftHand Networks Advantage partners as well as IBM channel partners. For further information, please contact LeftHand Networks at 1.866.4.IPSANS (866.447.7267)
About LeftHand Networks
LeftHand Networks pioneered IP-based storage area networks (SAN) in 2001. SANs built using LeftHand's SAN/iQ® software are uniquely able to distribute and protect data across a cluster of industry-standard storage servers. The company's patented architecture increases data availability, allows users to start small and grow the SAN seamlessly, and simplifies management. The LeftHand SAN is ideal for server consolidation and virtualization projects, Microsoft Application environments, and disaster recovery solutions. For more information, contact LeftHand at info@lefthandnetworks.com.
Source: LeftHand Networks
CONTACT: Melissa Hourigan of LeGrand Hart, +1-303-298-8470, mhourigan@legrandhart.com, for LeftHand Networks; or Tracey Floming of LeftHand Networks, tracey.floming@lefthandnetworks.com
