Hitachi Data Systems is updating the capabilities for its Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 (AMS) line of products to increase storage  density, configuration options, and protocol flexibility. The new features include SAS disks for high-density trays and an expanded capacity for rack mounting, enabling what the company called "extremely large capacities" -- up to a full petabyte on a single floor tile.
For the AMS 2100 and 2300, Hitachi is offering expanded host port options to allow for combined Fibre Channel and iSCSI ports on the same system, or to add more Fibre Channel host ports. The use of iSCSI and Fibre Channel multiprotocol solutions allows customers to protect their storage system investment, Hitachi said, while they might be evaluating a protocol switch.
Reduce Costs, Increase Utilization
The AMS 2000 family of products is a storage platform designed to provide what the company described as flexible, "cost-effective performance" through three models -- the 2100, 2300 and 2500, which differ in capacity, connectivity, performance and price. The company said the AMS 2500 can achieve better than 89,000 IOPS, a SPC-1 benchmark measurement from the Storage Performance Council.
In its announcement, Hitachi pointed to flexible solutions in which customers can start small and then expand the number of host ports as data-center needs grow. Mike Walkey, senior vice president of Hitachi's Global Channels and Solutions, said that, by allowing companies to start small, "this new solution gives our partners the ability to achieve energy efficiency without compromising the reliability, availability or security of their customers' IT infrastructure ."
He added that the new capabilities continue to "empower channel partners to reduce their customer costs while increasing asset utilization" in the data center.
The options to increase utilization include a SAS disk option for a high-density expansion tray, and host port expansion slots for AMS 2100 and 2300 controllers. Either SAS or SATA disks can be used for tiered storage.
'Greater Consolidation'
The new high-density SAS disk trays include up to 38 disks in a single 4U tray, and a 47U high rack can handle 10 dense trays and an AMS 2500 controller.
Hitachi said that, with the high-density trays for SAS drives along with the release last year of dense disk trays for SATA drives, customers can consolidate more servers and applications on one AMS 2000 system, thus saving on costs for facilities, energy, service and operations.
In a posting last week on Hitachi Data Systems' blog, Christophe Bertrand, senior director of product marketing for platforms, wrote that the new features "focus on our customer's desire to save money through greater consolidation." By attaching more servers to a single storage system and packing more terabytes on a floor tile, he wrote, the company is helping to address the density issues that are impacting many data centers.
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