Network Appliance has upgraded elements of its software and
hardware lines as part of its continuing effort to prove the cost
and management benefits of networked storage, writes Eric
Doyle.
The company believes most enterprises are moving away from direct
attached storage, where information is kept locally and can only be
accessed by a few servers.
Advances in networking technologies have made it possible to open
up this data to more servers and users, typically through San or
Nas environments.
Analyst IDC predicts storage needs will increase rapidly while
support staff levels stay the same. IDC research shows that storage
capacity is rising by nearly 80% a year with staff numbers
virtually unchanged - requiring a 60% per annum increase in
efficiency.
Network Appliance will release version 1.1 of its Data Fabric
Manager in October. The software will enable storage management to
be centralised. A key addition is support for Sun Microsystems
Solaris 2.8 Unix operating system.
The company is also introducing the first multiprocessor versions
of its storage appliances which are designed to work with large
databases or complex corporate applications such as enterprise
resource planning software.
The F880 can handle up to 6Tbytes of data, and a dual clustered
version, the F880c, can scale up to 12Tbytes.
As Network Appliance upgrades other parts of its software line it
expects this larger unit to be able to manage 18Tbytes of
data.
With the release of the F880, Network Appliance hopes to cast off
its image as a provider of small storage units able to handle only
a couple of specific tasks.
"We have an image in the marketplace that is mostly a historical
legacy," said Dan Warmenhoven, chief executive of Network
Appliance.
"Some people have this notion that an appliance is small.
"Sure, it was not that long ago that the largest system we sold was
1.5Tbytes, but these days we scale up to 18Tbytes."