Celerra boosted by iSCSI support
Celerra boosted by iSCSI support
EMC has made new strides towards increasing the flexibility of managing networked storage by offering a cheaper version of the network attached storage systems with better application connectivity through the use of iSCSI support.
The new Celerra NS500 system, combined with the Celerra is available in an integrated or gateway configuration. The Celerra NS704G NAS gateway allows customers to makes use of existing storage area networks (SANs).
EMC's new DART operating environment also includes enhancements to the Celerra Manager Basic Edition and iSCSI support.
This iSCSI support provides Celerra with the ability to offer an "all-in-one" storage that allows customers to consolidate both storage and servers into a single, centrally managed platform.
Clive Gold, the national product manager for EMC, said: "The benefits of iSCSI means that a company with a small office in Melbourne can now back up its data on the headquarters based in Sydney. Previous to this, the small office in Melbourne had to store the information locally, but this new affordable NAS systems allows them to transfer data across to different cities.
"In addition, we have a unique set up with Microsoft for retrieving old versions of files that have been deleted. The 2003 version of Word allows a user to find a previous copy of the file, through the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services".
This can be done by simply clicking on a button on the right hand side of the page, enabling the user to find an older version of the file, in case the current version has been accidentally written over. Previously, users would have to call up the administrator to bring back an old version from a tape."
Other new features include a graphically displayed "at-a-glance" status-monitoring capability that improves ease of use by helping administrators quickly identify potential system or performance issues.
It displays memory and CPU usage, performance and throughput information, the number of active network connections, information about open files, storage utilisation and more.
Lorie Beam, Smith Anderson's director of information technology explained how the law firm used EMC's NAS gateway technology with EMC CLARiiON SAN, over Network Appliance, to serve files to a team of almost 100 attorneys.
"There are not many products that combine the advanced NAS and SAN features we need and are affordable for a firm of our size. EMC's Celerra NAS gateway turned out to be the perfect fit.
"Now that our legal staff has faster access to critical documents and applications, we're more productive and are delivering more responsive client service. We gain the benefits of a SAN without having to buy Fibre switches.
"We're lowering management costs through server and storage consolidation and the product's automatic monitoring and troubleshooting."
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