Nimbus adds solid state to 10 GigE iSCSI NAS systems

Nimbus this week launched two Breeze Hybrid block and file systems that support iSCSI, CIFS and NFS protocols, and SAS, SATA and solid-state drives. The Breeze VH630 is designed for server virtualisation and the Breeze MH860 for large digital media files.

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Big iSCSI boxes are new and different. That market opportunity hasn't really been explored John Webster analystIlluminata

The systems are a step up from Nimbus' previous Breeze offerings, which were lower-end systems that had either one 10 GigE or four GigE ports with one SAS expansion port. Each maxed out at 80 TB. The new systems also cost three to four times as much as previous Nimbus systems. The VH630 starts at £37,500 for 22 TB and the MH860 starts at £60,000 for 34 TB.

"We said, 'What does it take to bring IP storage into the midrange and data centre?'" said Tom Isakovich, Nimbus CEO. "There are three things: multiprotocol support, tier flexibility and IP convergence of 10 GigE and Gigabit Ethernet."

While Isakovich positions Nimbus' new systems as competitors to the Dell-EqualLogic and LeftHand iSCSI-only SANs that don't support NAS, Nimbus is also up against multiprotocol systems from NetApp, BlueArc, Reldata and Agami Systems that do support both NAS and iSCSI. Nimbus is the first of these unified systems out with solid state, although industry observers expect others to follow soon.

Isakovich said he expects customers to use SSD for I/O-intensive applications, such as virtual machines, databases and log journals for Oracle, Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server.

Big iSCSI systems in uncharted waters

Analyst John Webster of Illuminata said the systems mark a step up for Nimbus and puts it in a higher level of competition. "The plan is to go up against the big boys, for better or worse," he said. "They're going to be going head-to-head with EqualLogic-Dell, so I guess you have to bring some stuff to the table."

While there is clearly a market for IP boxes that cater to virtualised server environments, Webster said Nimbus' MH860 is in uncharted waters. "Big iSCSI boxes are new and different," he said. "That market opportunity hasn't really been explored. A lot of iSCSI deployments have been small, VMware-oriented or extensions of an existing SAN. It's hard to gauge what user acceptance is going to be for big iSCSI boxes."