Compellent Storage Center 4.0 reduces disk drive usage by up to 80 per cent

Compellent Technologies, Inc. has launched its award-winning storage area network (SAN), offering several industry-first technologies that can reduce the number of disk drives required by up to 80 per cent.

Compellent Storage Center 4.0 is the first networked storage system to manage data inside the volume to automate tiered storage within every drive, amplify the storage utilisation benefits of thin provisioning and reclaim unused disk space. New software applications like Fast Track, Thin Import and Free Space Recovery help eliminate disk drives from the data centre, effectively reducing total cost of ownership and energy consumption for mid-sized enterprises.

Compellent is ushering in a new era of efficiency for networked storage systems, explains Andy Hardy, Managing Director of International Sales, Compellent. From software innovations like Fast Track to our third-generation controller, we framed the release of 4.0 around the business impact it would have on our end-users. By focusing on improving utilisation and performance, weve delivered a storage platform that can significantly reduce disk drive requirements, and as a result cut power and cooling expenses. Its the new TCO equation for the new data centre.

New features exclusively integrated in Storage Center 4.0 include: 

• Fast Track: Dynamically placing active data on the outer tracks of a disk drive can speed access to information while decreasing costs as fewer high-performance drives are needed. Unlike competitive offerings that only place entire volumes on perimeter tracks, Fast Track just moves frequently accessed data from the entire system to these tracks. As a result, performance is accelerated and disk drive requirements are reduced by up to 30 per cent.
• Thin Import: As existing data is copied to a Compellent SAN, Storage Center 4.0 converts the data into thin-provisioned volumes. This feature can reduce disk drive requirements by up to 50 per cent and help IT departments reclaim storage resources previously wasted in their legacy systems.
• Free Space Recovery: After Windows files are deleted from a thin provisioned volume in other SANs, the operating system will continue to report that the space is unavailable. Free Space Recovery enables this unused space to be utilised again, thereby making Compellents advanced thin provisioning technology one of the most efficient in the industry.
• Application Optimiser: Typically not available with traditional SANs, Application Optimiser tunes storage performance depending on the application being used. End-users can set the size of data transfers within the SAN to match I/O performance for different applications such as video imaging, e-mail and databases.
• Third-generation Controller: The new Series 30 controller offers increased performance for enterprise applications and is backwards compatible, eliminating the need for forklift upgrades.

"Thin Import might be one of the coolest applications of storage technology I've ever seen. Imagine being able to pull all the over-provisioned, over-allocated and under-utilised capacity off of your old expensive arrays and instantly apply just-in-time thin provisioning to those volumes, said Steve Duplessie, founder and senior storage analyst at Enterprise Systems Group. It is tantamount to taking your 25 per cent utilised storage infrastructure to 80 per cent in one fell swoop. Think of what that would mean for everything from footprint to backup the ramifications are staggering."

Compellents sophisticated data movement engine with Fast Track can optimise performance based on actual usage patterns. This feature influenced the decision of Ares Management LLC, a global investment management firm with offices in London, Los Angeles and New York to invest in a Compellent SAN.

When we sat down with the Compellent team and did the I/O calculations for Fast Track, our engineers were just blown away, explained Ping Ooi, associate vice president, Ares Management LLC. The expectation is once the active data is on the outside edge of the drives, any large-scale report we access will run in under 20 minutes, down from 30 minutes. Were talking about a 33 per cent reduction in time and were only going to continue to see improved efficiency as we fully utilise Fast Track.

Compellent Storage Center version 4.0 is immediately available through Compellents international network of business partners. A richly configured Storage Center 4.0 QuickStart ILM Bundle starts at approximately 30,000 (40,000) with 7.2 TB of storage, a single controller, Fast Track, Thin Import and Free Space Recovery, among other software licenses and standard three-year warranty (maintenance and service are not included). As always, end-users can purchase the new Storage Center 4.0 applications and controller as individual, modular upgrades.
 

About Compellent

Compellent is a leading provider of enterprise-class network storage solutions that are highly scalable, feature-rich and designed to be easy to use and cost effective. Compellent Technologies principal offices are located in Eden Prairie, Minn.