Overland Storage’s New iSCSI San Solution Delivers Effortless Data Management and Data Protection

Overland Storage, which operates in the same industry as companies like Quantum Corporation and Hewlett Packard, Inc., noted that its SnapServer SAN S2000 expands Overland’s market reach across the data lifecycle.

Overland Storage, the trusted global provider of effortless data management and data protection solutions across the data lifecycle, today announced the new Overland SnapServer SAN S2000: a feature rich, resource-efficient iSCSI SAN platform for businesses with growing data. The SnapServer SAN S2000 enables companies with Windows, VMware, Hyper-V, UNIX, Linux, or Mac OS X to take advantage of SAN capabilities that have traditionally been considered too complex to manage without specialized expertise, including active-active mirroring and failover, snapshots, replication and Microsoft Cluster Server support. Featuring automated capacity expansion, the solution enables policy-based storage volume growth to occur in a just-in-time manner without IT intervention, eliminating guesswork and over-provisioning. The SnapServer SAN S2000 scales effortlessly to 120TB and is a cost effective solution for businesses with virtualized server environments or storage consolidation requirements.

Optimized for Use in Virtualized Server Environments

• VMware –The SnapServer SAN S2000 integrates directly into the VMware management application to provide a host of advantages that include: simplified data store creation wizards for provisioning targets, the ability to provision storage for ESX clusters within VMware utilizing customized SnapServer tools, single interface configuration for SnapServer targets and VMware high availability for ESX data stores using native VMware utilities (DRS, HA, VMotion) with the SnapServer SAN active-active failover
  option.


• Microsoft Hyper-V –The SnapServer SAN S2000 is certified to support Windows Hyper-V Server for Microsoft virtualization deployments. With customized tools developed for the SnapServer SAN it enables simplified management of Hyper-V for backup utilizing VSS (volume shadow copy services), replication and mirroring. In addition the SnapServer SAN supports direct pass through access for guest virtual machines enabling higher performance and security.

Simple Management and Deployment

“The new SnapServer SAN S2000 has allowed us to provide networked block-based storage to multiple servers and easily manage our data growth from a single interface,” said Darren Dong, director of communications and web development at Riverside Community College District, an early beta tester of the SnapServer SAN S2000. “Our Fibre Channel SAN was making it difficult and expensive to map across multiple systems. The SnapServer SAN S2000 allows us to easily manage existing connections and create new ones as needed. We now spend a fraction of the time setting up and monitoring our storage solutions due to the ease of use of the S2000 and SnapServer Manager.”

Effortless Data Management and Data Protection, Wherever Data is Located

The SnapServer SAN S2000 is the first iSCSI SAN solution to fully integrate autoprovisioning, an automated capacity expansion feature. With this feature, storage volumes are automatically expanded based on predefined policy – without requiring intervention. Disk usage is also tracked, giving IT administrators the ability to easily monitor and manage disk capacity consumption across the organization. Companies with standalone or clustered Windows servers running business critical applications, such as Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server, can utilize the SnapServer SAN solution’s active-active failover capabilities to ensure high availability and maximum uptime. Advanced replication functionality that supports up to 256 snapshots and failover ensure data is protected and accessible at all times – regardless of its location – while accelerating backup efficiency.

“Businesses large and small face similar data storage growth challenges – but often without the resources or expertise to effectively deploy a SAN. They need a solution that can be easily deployed, is simple to manage and can accommodate growing amounts of data,” said Benjamin S. Woo, program vice president of enterprise storage systems at IDC. “Especially as more companies deploy virtualized environments, it becomes even more complex to manage data
growth over the long term. With autoprovisioning technology like that in Overland SnapServer SAN S2000, companies can ensure that their storage solution can support business growth without having to pre-determine storage requirements or running the risk of over-provisioning.”

Features and Benefits

• Automated capacity expansion – The SnapServer SAN S2000 easily manages storage growth with an autoprovisioning feature that tracks disk usage and automatically extends volumes that reach pre-defined thresholds, without requiring IT intervention.


• Simple storage management – With SnapServer Manager, IT managers can easily monitor and manage all SnapServer SAN and NAS systems remotely or locally via a Windows-based application or via web browser in heterogeneous environments.


• Maximized application uptime – SnapServer SAN S2000 ensures that essential applications are available at all times by supporting active-active mirroring and failover, and is fully compatible with the Windows Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) framework; also supports Microsoft Cluster Server.


• Disaster recovery – The inclusion of a VSS provider (Volume Shadow Copy Services)supports business continuity in the event of a disaster and increases backup efficiency while ensuring application consistency during backup and replication. It also enables SnapServer SAN S2000 to handle up to hundreds of thousands of replication recovery points.


• Twelve drives expandable to 120TB – The SnapServer SAN S2000 is a 2U base system that can seamlessly be expanded up to 120TB utilizing SnapServer E2000 expansion units.

“The SnapServer line has always been known for delivering rock-solid, reliable products for IT departments that need effortless and cost-effective storage solutions.

The SnapServer SAN S2000 not only builds on this reputation, but actually brings a new level of innovation and sophistication to the product line,” said Eric Kelly, president and CEO, Overland Storage. “We remain completely focused on listening to and addressing the specific storage needs of businesses by offering storage solutions that can quickly and easily be deployed within existing environments for instant scalability and reliability. Overland strives to deliver storage solutions that are truly effortless for businesses of any size.”

Overland Storage Inc.: Eric Kelly, President and CEO

Eric Kelly has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Overland Storage, Inc., since January 2009, and as a board member since 2007. His most recent corporate position was Vice President and General Manager of storage systems solutions at Adaptec, Inc. Prior to that, he served as President and CEO of Snap Appliance, which was acquired by Adaptec. Two years earlier, Mr. Kelly engineered the purchase of Snap from Quantum Corp., having recognized the inherent value in Snap, where the main product he drove became the volume market leader in network-attached storage (NAS) appliances. Mr. Kelly earned an MBA from San Francisco State University and a B.S. in business from San Jose State University.

Please give us a brief history and background of Overland Storage.

Mr. Kelly: It's our 29th year of business. Overland (OVRL) originally started off as a tape company, and the business was really designed around providing products to a major OEM, which was HP. At one point, HP represented about 65% to 70% of Overland's business. The other piece of Overland's business was a very fast-growing and well-supported distribution channel around the world. And with those two pieces of the business, it grew very well. Our fiscal year 2009 ended in June, and we reported a little over $105 million in revenue. We have over 1,000 partners worldwide.

We support and sell solutions in more than 60 different countries and have over 300,000 units installed around the world - over 100,000 units across tape-based products and over 200,000 across our disk-based product lines. Through an acquisition that we made back in June of 2008 - we acquired a company by the name of Snap Appliance that was part of Adaptec - we now have two very strong brands, the Overland brand and the Snap Appliance brand.

In the 29 years Overland has been in business, technology has changed drastically. Talk a bit more about what your business strategy is today and going forward.

Mr. Kelly: Our strategy today is to provide effortless data protection and data management solutions end-to-end, from online to nearline to archival, all the way to the cloud. We're doing that through a seamless management layer that is very simple to use, very easy to install, and it stems from the ease of use that Snap Appliance delivered to its customers for many years. I'll use the example of whether you have an iPhone or an iPod, or now the iPad, you have a very seamless, very easy to use, very intuitive interface. In the storage arena, ease of use is a very strong requirement that we hear from both our customers and our partners. For example, the product that we announced a couple of weeks ago, our iSCSI SAN product, SnapServer SAN, uses the same effortless management interface that we have on our SnapServer NAS products.

Tell us more about your main product lines and particularly the latest technological advances you've made.

Mr. Kelly: We have a network-attached storage product line, SnapServer NAS. The intelligence behind that is GuardianOS, which is our network-attached storage operating system. There are very few of those out in the industry that have been around as long as we have; we were probably one of the original network-attached operating systems. You now have NetApp, you have Microsoft and their storage server product line, and then you have EMC and maybe a few others that have enterprise-class operating systems in that arena.

With the product that we just announced, SnapServer SAN, we feel we're changing the playing field in terms of delivering enterprise solutions to the mid-tier customer base at a different price point and value proposition. We offer required enterprise features, such as snapshots, replication, support for VMware, and we also have what people have come to know as thin provisioning - we call it "auto-provisioning," but it's a similar architecture. We're able to deliver all of that at a sub-$15,000 price point.

You mentioned having 300,000 units around the world. Talk about your customer base. Is there a typical Overland Storage customer? And what's the range of your customer base in terms of the company and industry size? Are they in the U.S. versus overseas?

Mr. Kelly: We have a two-tiered, go-to-market strategy. We work 100% through our reseller partners, our value-added resellers. In terms of the geographic makeup, about 60% of our revenue is in the U.S., 40% is outside of the U.S. And of that 40%, probably 90% of that is in the European region. We have a pretty broad customer footprint geographically. We're not tied to any one vertical, so whether it's oil and gas, utility, technology, education, government, retail, health care or the financial market space, we have a fairly even distribution of customers. It allows us to not have ups and downs just because one vertical happens to be stronger in one quarter than another. It also gives us a good distribution in terms of geographic presence. As for the typical customer, we have several types. One is the distributed enterprise.

Geoff Barrall CTO of Overland Storage -SnapServer

Former BlueArc and Data Robotics founder

Overland Storage, Inc. introduced the appointment of Dr. Geoff Barrall as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Vice President of Engineering.

Reporting to Eric Kelly, Overland Storage president and CEO, Barrall is responsible for Overland product development, engineering, and research and development functions. Dr. Barrall brings over 20 years of experience in the design, development and delivery of data storage solutions, as well as extensive operational experience and deep business insight.

"We are delighted to welcome Geoff to the Overland Storage executive team. He is a recognized visionary in the storage industry and brings a proven track record of success," said Kelly. "Geoff's passion for innovation and technical leadership will be invaluable as we evolve and execute our product strategy."

Prior to joining Overland Storage, Barrall served as CEO of Data Robotics, a company he founded in 2005. With more than a dozen storage-related patents to his credit, he has founded five companies, including BlueArc Corporation and several IT and consulting services firms. He currently serves on the board of directors of Nexsan and previously served on the board of directors for Tacit Networks and the advisory boards for both Data Domain and NeoPath.

Dr. Barrall earned his PhD in Cybernetics from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

"I am very excited to be a part of the team that is cultivating a renewed spirit of innovation and leadership at Overland Storage. This is a company with significant brand equity and potential for continued growth," said Barrall. "I look forward to leading the technology team that will enable Overland to expand the solution portfolio in unique and powerful ways."

SnapServer SAN S2000 - Now everyone can have a SAN

Now everyone can have a SAN. Businesses with growing storage needs and limited resources for storage management need a networked storage solution that streamlines data management operations and increases information infrastructure performance without additional training, resources and costs. The SnapServer SAN S2000 scales to 120 TB, effortlessly expands volumes without requiring IT intervention and enables companies to leverage SAN capabilities that have traditionally been considered too complex to manage without specialized expertise. Optimized for virtualized server enviroments, SnapServer SAN S2000 includes support for Microsoft Windows Cluster Server, active-active failover, snapshots, and automatic capacity expansion.

Overview

The SnapServer SAN S2000 is a 2U iSCSI SAN appliance designed specifically for businesses with growing storage needs and limited resources to manage an end-to-end storage strategy. Built on the Overland Storage vision of “effortless data,” the SnapServer S2000 offers an intuitive, simplified management console and Windows-based guided wizards to make installation and maintenance simple for any level of administrator. In addition, the SnapServer has an ideal mix of standard enterprise features including auto provisioning, mirroring for high availability, replication and snapshots for data protection. The SnapServer S2000 simultaneously lowers ongoing operational expenditures and significantly lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) without compromising on the features a business needs to succeed.

Management for the Non-Storage Expert

Building on its vision of “effortless data,” Overland Storage has put the storage expertise into the SnapServer S2000, making it intuitive and easy to manage - virtually eliminating the need for technical experience with iSCSI or SAN systems. With a plug and play architecture combined with a simplified management console and built-in Windows-based wizards, the SnapServer S2000 dramatically saves time on installation, setup, and the vast majority of multi-step storage and data protection tasks.

Breakthrough Automation for SAN Storage Provisioning
The SnapServer SAN S2000 enables companies to leverage Overland’s unique Auto Provisioning capability. Administrators can meet increasing data growth requirements by automatically increasing capacity on the host as needed –without user involvement. Most SAN storage systems require storage volumes to be expanded manually. SnapServer SAN S2000 Auto Provisioning makes capacity expansion “self-managing” by proactively growing volume capacity without any pre-allocation or administrator involvement. Special monitoring software runs in the background to track disk usage and extend volumes that reach pre-defined thresholds. IT administrators no longer have to calculate future storage needs before knowing them.

Overcoming Management Complexity

The SnapServer Manager provides a consistent interface across all products. From a single console, IT administrators can monitor and manage one or more SnapServer SAN or NAS storage systems that are located anywhere on the system – across the globe or down the hall. Utilizing a local windows application or web browser in heterogeneous environments, the console manages storage event logs and immediately displays any faults. Email notifications or text events are automatically sent to the administrators. As an “OS agnostic” appliance, the SnapServer SAN can easily be deployed to provide iSCSI storage to systems running Windows, VMware, Linux, Mac OS X and Novell Netware.

Eliminating Data Protection Pitfalls

Business continuity plans will keep an organization up and running in the event of a major disaster or technology failure. A key to this success is a feature rich solution that provides both mirroring and replication. With the SnapServer SAN, companies don’t have to make the choice between the features they need and the price they can afford. The SnapServer SAN ensures that essential applications remain available at all times by supporting multiple servers reading or writing SAN volumes simultaneously across multiple Ethernet ports. It is fully compatible with the Windows Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) framework, supports Microsoft Cluster Server, complies with Microsoft’s ‘Simple SAN’ program, and other third-party management applications. In addition, the SnapServer SAN mirroring option provides real-time high availability protection for business critical data and is fully integrated with Windows Server Platforms and VMware. With the SnapServer SAN replication option, companies have an easy-to-use yet, powerful solution to a broad range of backup and recovery scenarios. Fully integrated with Microsoft Volume ShadowCopy Services (VSS) for application consistent replication and disaster recovery for Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server, the replication option supports 256 snapshots and scheduled and periodic updates of replicated data. Unlike conventional snapshots, which typically allow a maximum of a few hundred recovery points, SnapServer SAN replicas are designed to handle up to hundreds of thousands of recovery points.

Making Interoperability a Non-Issue

Compatibility is the last thing a storage administrator wants to worry about when implementing SAN storage. That’s why the SnapServer SAN S2000 supports out-of-the-box iSCSI interoperability with Windows, Windows Clusters, Windows VSS, VMware (ESX and vSphere) certification, Linux, Mac OS X, and Novell NetWare. Direct integration with VMware vCenter makes the SnapServer SAN one of the easiest management tools on the market today. The SnapServer SAN S2000 provides for multiple servers reading or writing SAN volumes simultaneously across multiple Ethernet ports. In addition, the SnapServer SAN S2000 is also fully qualified with Windows Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) framework as well as in full compliance with Microsoft’s ‘Simple SAN’ program, and includes a VDS (Virtual Disk Services) provider for integration with the Microsoft SAN Manager and other third-party management applications.

Value Delivered

Overland Storage has always focused on providing high value storage. Unlike other iSCSI SAN solutions, the SnapServer S2000 is built on industry standard high performance hardware. Using the latest in CPU power and RAM, the SnapServer SAN appliance provides higher end performance and features while maintaining a low TCO to make it the best value in the market.

New iSCSI SAN Solution From Overland Storage -SnapServer S2000 Optimized for Virtualized Server Environments

SnapServer SAN S2000 Expands Overland's Market Reach Across the Data Lifecycle

Overland Storage today announced the new Overland SnapServer SAN S2000: a feature rich, resource-efficient iSCSI SAN platform for businesses with growing data. The SnapServer SAN S2000 enables companies with Windows, VMware, Hyper-V, UNIX, Linux, or Mac OS X to take advantage of SAN capabilities that have traditionally been considered too complex to manage without specialized expertise, including active-active mirroring and failover, snapshots, replication and Microsoft Cluster Server support. Featuring automated capacity expansion, the solution enables policy-based storage volume growth to occur in a just-in-time manner without IT intervention, eliminating guesswork and over-provisioning. The SnapServer SAN S2000 scales effortlessly to 120TB and is a cost effective solution for businesses with virtualized server environments or storage consolidation requirements.

Optimized for Use in Virtualized Server Environments
VMware -- The SnapServer SAN S2000 integrates directly into the VMware management application to provide a host of advantages that include:
simplified data store creation wizards for provisioning targets, the ability to provision storage for ESX clusters within VMware utilizing customized SnapServer tools, single interface configuration for SnapServer targets and VMware high availability for ESX data stores using native VMware utilities (DRS, HA, VMotion) with the SnapServer SAN active-active failover option.

Microsoft Hyper-V -- The SnapServer SAN S2000 is certified to support Windows Hyper-V Server for Microsoft virtualization deployments. With customized tools developed for the SnapServer SAN it enables simplified management of Hyper-V for backup utilizing VSS (volume shadow copy services), replication and mirroring. In addition the SnapServer SAN supports direct pass through access for guest virtual machines enabling higher performance and security.

Simple Management and Deployment
"The new SnapServer SAN S2000 has allowed us to provide networked block-based storage to multiple servers and easily manage our data growth from a single interface," said Darren Dong, director of communications and web development at Riverside Community College District, an early beta tester of the SnapServer SAN S2000. "Our Fibre Channel SAN was making it difficult and expensive to map across multiple systems. The SnapServer SAN S2000 allows us to easily manage existing connections and create new ones as needed. We now spend a fraction of the time setting up and monitoring our storage solutions due to the ease of use of the S2000 and SnapServer Manager."

Effortless Data Management and Data Protection, Wherever Data is Located
The SnapServer SAN S2000 is the first iSCSI SAN solution to fully integrate autoprovisioning, an automated capacity expansion feature. With this feature, storage volumes are automatically expanded based on predefined policy -- without requiring intervention. Disk usage is also tracked, giving IT administrators the ability to easily monitor and manage disk capacity consumption across the organization. Companies with standalone or clustered Windows servers running business critical applications, such as Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server, can utilize the SnapServer SAN solution's active-active failover capabilities to ensure high availability and maximum uptime. Advanced replication functionality that supports up to 256 snapshots and failover ensure data is protected and accessible at all times -- regardless of its location -- while accelerating backup efficiency.

"Businesses large and small face similar data storage growth challenges -- but often without the resources or expertise to effectively deploy a SAN. They need a solution that can be easily deployed, is simple to manage and can accommodate growing amounts of data," said Benjamin S. Woo, program vice president of enterprise storage systems at IDC. "Especially as more companies deploy virtualized environments, it becomes even more complex to manage data growth over the long term. With autoprovisioning technology like that in Overland SnapServer SAN S2000, companies can ensure that their storage solution can support business growth without having to pre-determine storage requirements or running the risk of over-provisioning."

Features and Benefits
Automated capacity expansion -- The SnapServer SAN S2000 easily manages storage growth with an autoprovisioning feature that tracks disk usage and automatically extends volumes that reach pre-defined thresholds, without requiring IT intervention.

Simple storage management -- With SnapServer Manager, IT managers can easily monitor and manage all SnapServer SAN and NAS systems remotely or locally via a Windows-based application or via web browser in heterogeneous environments.

Maximized application uptime -- SnapServer SAN S2000 ensures that essential applications are available at all times by supporting active mirroring and failover, and is fully compatible with the Windows Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) framework; also supports Microsoft Cluster Server.

Disaster recovery -- The inclusion of a VSS provider (Volume Shadow Copy Services) supports business continuity in the event of a disaster and increases backup efficiency while ensuring application consistency during backup and replication. It also enables SnapServer SAN S2000 to handle up to hundreds of thousands of replication recovery points.

Twelve drives expandable to 120TB -- The SnapServer SAN S2000 is a 2U base system that can seamlessly be expanded up to 120TB utilizing SnapServer E2000 expansion units.

"The SnapServer line has always been known for delivering rock-solid, reliable products for IT departments that need effortless and cost-effective storage solutions. The SnapServer SAN S2000 not only builds on this reputation, but actually brings a new level of innovation and sophistication to the product line," said Eric Kelly, president and CEO, Overland Storage. "We remain completely focused on listening to and addressing the specific storage needs of businesses by offering storage solutions that can quickly and easily be deployed within existing environments for instant scalability and reliability. Overland strives to deliver storage solutions that are truly effortless for businesses of any size."

NetApp acquires data deduplication specialist Data Domain for $1.5 billion

NetApp Inc. today made a bold move to become the market leader in data deduplication technology when it acquired Data Domain Inc. for $1.5 billion in a mixed cash and stock transaction.

The deal is expected to close within 60 to 120 days. NetApp paid $25 per share – a high price considering Data Domain's shares opened at $17.40 today – but it acquired the company generally considered the leader in one of the hottest technology markets.

Jay Kidd, NetApp's chief marketing officer, said buying Data Domain would allow NetApp to compete in network-attached storage (NAS)-based disk-based backup, as opposed to the virtual tape library (VTL) space where it offers deduplication with NetApp NearStore VTL. Currently, the virtual tape library is NetApp's only backup hardware product offering with deduplication, and the deduplication it offers with its filers isn't optimized for highly sequential backup workloads, Kidd said.

On a conference call with press and analysts Wednesday night, Kidd emphasized that the NearStore VTL will stick around for those customers who are still interested in using tape, but "Data Domain will help us compete in an increasing number of installs wanting to minimize their reliance on tape," he said.

However, analysts are skeptical about the idea that NearStore will coexist alongside Data Domain's offerings. Data Domain's focus is on disk-as-disk without the VTL interface, but it does offer a virtual tape library appliance. That appliance doesn't integrate with back-end tape, which NearStore does, but NearStore doesn't do replication with dedupe, while Data Domain offers replication with dedupe.

"You could add back-end tape integration to Data Domain pretty easily from what I've seen," said data backup expert W. Curtis Preston. "It wouldn't be as easy to add replication to the NetApp product."

Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst at Hopkinton, Mass.-based Taneja Group, also pointed out that Data Domain's variable-length segment dedupe algorithm for backups is generally considered stronger than NetApp's NearStore block-level approach.

"The current [NetApp] dedupe offering hasn't been anything to write home about," he said. "Variable chunks don't always look for duplicates at block boundaries, which means it'll pick up a single-character difference between files."

The price of the deal only amplified skepticism that the Data Domain products will remain relegated to one part of NetApp's business. "You have to believe there will be some product rationalization, where they choose the best [product] for primary [storage] and the best for secondary [storage]," said Brian Babineau, a senior analyst at Milford, Mass.-based Enterprise Strategy Group.

NetApp tried to downplay the overlap between Data Domain's offerings and its own, but both companies position deduplication products with a NAS interface for nearline storage and archival storage, albeit with different approaches to dedupe. NetApp's dedupe for nearline storage is post-process, while Data Domain's operates inline.

NetApp officials on Wednesday night's earnings call said NetApp tends to be strongest in nearline and archiving deals where the primary storage is also a NetApp device because customers can incorporate NetApp's native data replication and migration tools. Kidd said NetApp intends to use Data Domain's nearline product to compete in mixed-vendor primary storage environments.

There's no overlap on dedupe for primary data -- Data Domain has stayed away from that and concentrated on backup and archiving. Analysts are split on whether NetApp will try to use Data Domain technology to enhance its primary dedupe. "I think you could see the [NetApp] dedupe enhanced with the Data Domain algorithm," said Dave Russell, a vice president with Gartner Research. "I just don't see spending that kind of money without really trying to get the value out of dedupe technology across the portfolio."

Countered Preston: "With this acquisition NetApp becomes the first company I'm aware of that has both a solidly inline and a solidly post-process dedupe product, and they are totally different beasts."

NetApp's dedupe works for primary storage because it analyzes only changed blocks in an environment where dedupe ratios are much lower than in the backup world. As a post-process offering, it doesn't sit in the data path or interfere with performance during production hours. Data Domain's product is optimized for high deduplication ratios on highly repetitive data and sits in the data path.

Preston also pointed out that Data Domain's licensing doesn't necessarily make its software a good fit for archiving. "From a pricing perspective, [NetApp deduplication] is probably much stronger for nearline storage," he said. "Data Domain's licensing is based on very high deduplication ratios and might be much more expensive gigabyte-for-gigabyte with a lower ratio."

Meanwhile, according to Taneja, this deal raises the likelihood of further consolidation in the dedupe space. "I believe that at some point in time [NetApp rival] EMC [Corp.] is going to have to buy [deduplication partner] Quantum [Corp.]," he said, "simply because deduplication technology is that important a competitive weapon now."

Snap Server vs the Competition: NAS Storage Comparison

Bake-Off: Network-Attached Storage

Whenever the conversation turns to storage, SANs tend to hog the spotlight. However, there are valid technical and financial reasons for picking NAS, especially when several machines need access to the same set of data.

CRN Test Center reviewers set out to examine middle-of-the-road NAS products that support 2 Tbytes to 4 Tbytes of storage space and have a Gigabit Ethernet interface. The five products that made the cut were Adaptec Inc.'s Snap Server 520, Buffalo Technology Inc.'s TeraStation Pro II, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s ProLiant DL320s Storage Server, LaCie's Ethernet Disk, and Netgear Inc.'s ReadyNAS NV+. These capacities represent the maximum for each unit, which were not the same as the as-tested capacity.

Methodology

Reviewers calculated technical rankings by looking at performance, feature set and capacity-per-dollar. Capacity-per-dollar was calculated on a standard 2-Tbyte storage system. Channel programs were also considered.

In the interest of standardizing storage types, each system was configured with a single RAID 5 array setup at the largest size possible. Each unit was connected to the same switch as the testing PC.

Two tests measured performance. First, two directories with various file types were copied from the testing PC to the NAS and back again. The 1.2-Gbyte directory contained 23 files and the 3.2-Gbyte directory had 41. Operations were timed.
Then Iozone testing software measured I/O performance on files from 32 Mbytes to 10 Gbytes. Results were plotted to see which system had the best overall performance across various file sizes.

Other considerations included environmental factors such as noise level, power draw and heat output; feature set; applications; types of connectivity; supported platforms; failover capabilities and management options.

Running the Numbers

Iozone tests both file sizes and record sizes when measuring read/write speeds. When the results were plotted, HP ProLiant DL320s Storage Server creamed the competition. It measured 815,151 KBps (796 MBps) on writing a 32-Mbyte file with 64-Kbyte records, while the next highest performer, LaCie Ethernet Disk, measured 285,787 KBps (279 MBps). Oddly enough, LaCie Ethernet Disk has less features but consistently outperformed Adaptec Snap Server 520 across all file sizes, while Buffalo's TeraStation Pro II and Netgear's ReadyNAS NV+ had virtually identical results. Buffalo and Netgear win points for consistency—their speed remained essentially the same regardless of file size. After 128 Mbytes,
however, LaCie's read/write speeds dropped close to Adaptec's speeds, which remained slightly better than Buffalo and Netgear. The HP results remained consistently high, but had a sharp decline after 1 Gbyte, bringing it closer to the rest of the competition in order of magnitude.

HP ProLiant DL320s Storage Server

HP's ProLiant DL320s Storage Server snatched first place on the combined strength of its channel program, I/O performance and features. Priced at $6,666, it was the second most expensive offering in this comparison, but it's worth it for environments where performance matters.

The ProLiant DL320s test system was a 2U enclosure with 12 250-Gbyte SATA drives, providing up to 3 Tbytes of storage. SAS drives are also supported. The ProLiant DL320s Storage Server comes in several size configurations, including 1.7 Tbytes, 3 Tbytes, 3.6 Tbytes, 6 Tbytes and 9 Tbytes. It can easily support 25 to 200 users.

Since the DL320s does not come in units lower than 3 Tbytes for SATA disks, the price-per-capacity is presented at 3 Tbytes for this system only.

The ProLiant DL320s Storage Server ships with the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 RC2 operating system preinstalled and preconfigured. When powering it on, the system runs the Rapid Startup Wizard, which collects
network configuration information. Once the wizard is complete, the system is available over CIFS, Samba, NHS, HTTP, FTP, WebDAV, AppleTalk and NetWare file protocols. Reviewers used the Storage Manager interface to create a new 2-Tbyte RAID 5 volume spanning all 12 drives.

For all practical purposes, this is a regular Windows server—but one that has been optimized to be a storage device. The registry has been tweaked to deliver files faster and data duplication features have been added. It comes with a dual-core Intel Xeon 3070 2.67GHz processor, 2 Gbytes of memory (expandable up to 4 Gbytes), a DVD drive and dual hot-plug power supplies. VARs can install security applications and third-party storage applications to complement HP's Storage Manager tool. It can also function as a print server.

To simulate drive failure, reviewers pulled the drive out of the chassis at random. The system logged the problem and immediately rebuilt the array so data was not lost.

HP performed better on large, multifile directories. It took 2:19 minutes to read and 2:11 minutes to write 1.2 Gbytes of data and 7:59 minutes to read and 6:11 minutes to write about 3 Gbytes. It was consistently faster on the writes than on the reads.

Netgear ReadyNAS NAV+

Netgear ReadyNAS NAV+ nabbed second place on the strength of its channel program and its deep feature set. The ReadyNAS matched more expensive competitors feature for feature at a significant cost-savings.

It is a desktop solution that packs a large wallop into a small case. The price-per-capacity, $1,599 for 2 Tbytes, is solidly in the midpoint compared with the other four products.

The ReadyNAS NV+ supports RAID 0, 1 and 5 as well as its own X-RAID (Expandable) configuration. The device has four hot-swappable drive slots and an integrated backup manager that allows for one-button backup to an external USB hard drive or remote server. It is expandable via three USB 2.0 ports. The ReadyNAS NV+ can support up to 20 concurrent users and can also be configured as a DHCP server and a print server. It has an informational LCD panel concealed
behind a mirror on the front that is only visible when lit.

The unit comes preconfigured in X-RAID to expand storage capacity when drives are changed. Reviewers manually reset the system to create the RAID 5 volume. Although the administrator console is browser-based, the RAID configuration is done through a client application called RAIDar. This application is easy to use, but it's an extra program that solution providers need to remember. Drive failure was simulated by pulling out a drive. When the drive was replaced, the system needed to rebuild the array, which took a little more than four hours.

The intuitive administrator console allows all kinds of ReadyNAS management, going so far as to allow recalibrating the fan and show temperature readings down to each disk.

On performance, the ReadyNAS took 53 seconds to read and 1:11 minutes to write 1.2 Gbytes of data and 16:48 minutes to read and 10:25 minutes to 3.2 Gbytes of data. At 69 dB, noise levels were comparable to the other units
tested, but seemed much louder as it was a desktop unit. It drew only 58 watts of power.

ReadyNAS is built with the future in mind. As higher-storage capacity disk drives hit the market, it will be able to accommodate them, all the way to the theoretical four 16-Tbyte hard drives that will max out the system's storage capacity at 64 Tbytes

Adaptec Snap Server 520

Adaptec Snap Server 520, despite its robust feature set, lost out to Netgear and ended up in third place. At a list price of
$6,445 for a 2-Tbyte configuration, the Snap Server has the highest price-per-capcity value compared with its competitors. Netgear had the advantage of having a lower price-per-capacity while matching many of Snap Server's features. However, the Snap Server 520 stands apart from its competition in one regard: While the other vendors submitted storage products, Adaptec submitted a complete solution.

With two Gigabit Ethernet ports, a print server, backup and antivirus software, the 1U enclosure comes with four 750-Gbyte hot-swappable SATA drives. Its two-line LCD displays status information, system ID and IP address. The Snap Server is a system with an eye toward future growth. The box can have its internal memory upgraded up to 4 Gbytes. Seven expansion bays make a maximum capacity of 66 Tbytes possible.

Mounting the rack on rails proved to be a frustrating exercise. Otherwise, installation was simple. The extremely well-laid out, browser-based administration interface allowed reviewers to see the status of, and configure, almost everything imaginable. It is clearly one of the unit's high points.

Connecting to the shares was as easy as typing the path within a command line or, preferably, mapping a drive letter to it from a remote machine.

At nearly twice the size of the LaCie, the extra surface area allowed the Snap Server to operate at almost room temperature, 69 degrees, in the front of the case, and only 10 degrees warmer in the back. This was much cooler than the other contenders. On the flip side, at 78 dB, it was a noisy system and drew about the same amount of power as the HP ProLiant DL320s, peaking at 130 watts during startup before dropping down to the 90s.

Read and write tests showed that the Snap Server's speed improves somewhat with larger files. It took the longest to read and write 1.2 Gbytes of data at 2:11 minutes to read and 2:09 minutes to write. It took 8:37 minutes to read and
15:26 minutes to write 3.2 Gbytes.

LaCie Ethernet Disk

Even though it lacks many of its competitors' features, the LaCie Ethernet Disk was a favorite during testing. The lack of features such as individual disk status information, support for the NFS protocol and a front LCD panel hurt the Ethernet Disk in this particular comparison and helped land it in fourth place, but its performance and price-per-capacity stand out.

Despite being the cheapest unit on price-per-capacity, at $949 for 2 Tbytes, the LaCie Ethernet Disk turned in better performance than two of its competitors, Netgear and Buffalo. LaCie Ethernet Disk has four hard disk drive slots and can
support as many as 25 users simultaneously. The test system had 4 Tbytes of storage and is priced at $1,999.

LaCie ships with a Microsoft Windows XP Embedded operating system preinstalled. The OS allows Ethernet Disk to easily join a Windows domain using Active Directory. It also supports Samba, AFP, FTP, HTTP and Bonjour file-sharing protocols. There are four high-speed USB 2.0 ports for backup onto external hard drives, or for capacity expansion. There are also PS2 mouse/keyboard ports and a VGA monitor connector, none of which LaCie recommends using.

The 1U rack-mountable unit came with little rubber feet (or as one reviewer called them, "booties") to cover the protruding ends, allowing it to be safely used as a stand-alone device. Optional rails for rack mounting are also available. Installation and configuration was, by far, the easiest of all the units tested. Reviewers mounted the system in a rack, connected the power and network cables and turned it on. After boot, there is already a share called Public created and ready to use. The browser-based, tabbed administration application is intuitive, but sparse on features.

Although generating more heat than the others, the LaCie was quiet and drew considerably less power than the other products. The power draw peaked at 66 watts during startup and stabilized at 63 watts.

While Ethernet Disk lacks features, it performs well. It took 1:11 minutes to read and 1:30 minutes to write 1.2 Gbytes of data, and 13:02 minutes to read and 6:41 minutes to write 3.2 Gbytes of data.

Buffalo TeraStation Pro II

Despite having the second lowest price-per-capacity, at $1,200 for 2 Tbytes, the TeraStation Pro II from Buffalo placed fifth because it lacked the robust feature set and performance capabilities of its competitors.

Rackmount and desktop versions are available in 1-Tbyte, 2-Tbyte and 4-Tbyte capacities. A desktop is also available in 3 Tbytes. The TeraStation test system was installed with four 1-Tbyte 7,200-rpm hard drives to get a 4-Tbyte storage capacity. The 4-Tbyte TeraStation Pro II is available for $2,200.

Drives can be configured in RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD. External drives or additional units can be linked via its two USB 2.0 ports. A LCD display shows the drive and the system's status, network configuration and any error messages. Once the TeraStation Pro II is hooked up on the network, it immediately obtains an IP address from the DHCP server and displays it on the LCD screen. Once it has an IP address, the TeraNavigator software, available under Windows and Apple's OS X, detects it. The NAS Navigator is the client utility and displays system information and configuration settings. The TeraStation Pro II supports Samba and FTP for file sharing and can be synced with a time server. The system can support Active Directory integration and DFS. The fault-tolerant RAID mode allows hot-swapping SATA drives. It also has a built-in FTP server.

The system is quiet, despite a large fan, even more so as a desktop unit and is quieter as a desktop unit than as a rackmount. The heat-release design keeps the unit very cool, even after eight hours of intensive file copy operations. It drew more power than the sleeker LaCie system or the comparable Netgear box, drawing a peak of 94 watts during startup, stabilizing at 86 watts after several hours.

The TeraStation Pro II was the slowest performer, taking 25 minutes to read and 31 minutes to write 2 Gbytes of data. Other data sizes were not tested as a result