Primary Storage Options (continued)
Hybrids
WHO
SHOULD
USE IT?
LOOKING FOR A LIT TLE SAN AND A LITTLE NAS? Think hybrid. More and more companies are offering integrated storage appliances that combine SAN, NAS, and DAS, sometimes simultaneously.
THE GOOD
YOUR CHOICES ARE NO LONGER EITHER/OR. “That’s
the value of [hybrid] systems,” says Schulz. “It’s not all or
nothing.” The ability to move back and forth between NAS
and SAN is well-suited to the needs of SMBs, agrees Chen.
“You are going to start seeing more and more of these, and
I think they are ideal for SMBs,” he says. “SMBs don’t want
to be small forever. Having that flexibility is essential for
them. You never know what is going to happen down the
road.”
For Stephanie Balaouras, a senior analyst at Cambridge,
Mass.-based analyst firm Forrester Research Inc., the new
hybrid offerings couldn't have come at a better time. Earlier
storage systems for SMBs, she argues, were just stripped-down versions of technologies originally built for bigger
companies. “SMBs need all the functions of an enterprise
array,” Balaouras says. “[They] just need to mask the complexity.” And that’s exactly what these new machines do,
she adds. “They offer all the same functions [as NAS and
SAN devices]. They are just more intuitive and easier to
use.” Many are wizard driven and ship preconfigured.
In addition, many hybrid systems require little maintenance and are easy to deploy. They also offer built-in data
protection capabilities, such as point-in-time copies, RAID,
volume management, and remote replication.
THE BAD
“THEY ARE NOT SUPER PREVALENT IN THE MARKET YET,” says Chen. If your customers are reluctant to switch
storage vendors, they may have to wait until their preferred manufacturer offers a hybrid. Also, some analysts argue
that hybrids are classic generalists: They perform many tasks acceptably, but none exceptionally.
Emerging SMB Storage Players
The big brands may be reassuringly familiar,
but according to storage industry experts,
several lesser-known firms offer SMB storage solutions worth evaluating too. Unlike
the storage world’s giants, many of whom
are relatively new to the SMB market, these
smaller vendors often design their products
from the ground up for SMB environments.
Here are some emerging names in storage,
according to Greg Schulz, a senior analyst at
The StorageIO Group, and Andrew Reich-man, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.:
Schulz’s Picks:
Asigra Inc. www.asigra.com: A promising
online backup and restore vendor.
Intradyn Inc. www.intrandyn.com: Its
archiving, backup, and disaster recovery solutions are tailored to the needs of SMBs.
LeftHand Networks Inc.
www.lefthand-networks.com: Combine its SAN/iQ clustering software with hardware from manufacturers such as HP to build an open iSCSI
SAN solution.
FACT: ACCORDING TO GARTNER INC., 70 PERCENT OF SMBs EXPECT THEIR
STORAGE BUDGE T TO "INCREASE OR REMAIN THE SAME" IN 2007.
Reichman’s Picks:
EqualLogic Inc. www.equallogic.com:
Makes scalable, high-performance SAN
platforms with simple user interfaces.
Xiotech Corp. www.xiotech.com: Offers
low-cost Fibre Channel SAN solutions that
are easy to administer. Xiotech devices also
utilize solid state disks (SSDs), which can
give applications faster access to storage in
high-intensity database tables when deployed properly.
3PARdata Inc. www.3par.com: Provides
highly scalable, modular storage solutions
with low cost of entry and intuitive management interfaces. Its products support both
Fibre Channel and iSCSI host connectivity.
FACT: DA TA PROTECTION AND DISASTER RECOVER Y TOP THE LIST OF END-USER STORAGE SPENDING PRIORITIES, ACCORDING TO IDC.
