Simple Storage Gets Consumer Advice
Simple Storage Gets Consumer Advice
October 16, 2007: In a bid to meet growing storage requirements at the small end of town, Hitachi Data Systems has announced its first foray into the small to medium sized business (SMB) market with the launch of the SMS 100.
Simplifying the technology with some advice from the consumer side of the business, Hitachi says the Simple Modular Storage (SMS) model 100 will provide a low-cost, entry level storage system designed specifically for the increasing capacities of SMBs or alternatively, distributed enterprises seeking solutions for their branch officers.
With a network of 20,000 different products, the storage side of the business has scanned the expertise involved in its Plasma and LCD televisions, home cinema projectors and Blu-Ray Disc camcorders to simplify storage for the SMB market.
According to Tim Smith, senior marketing manager at HDS, the release is the culmination of three years of research and development. “HDS realise the SMB sector were going through the same challenges as the larger corporation,” he says. “Application capability is just as critical, and the SMB sector is the fastest growing in the Australia and New Zealand market place.”
It’s a major shift into the SMB market but Hitachi claims it’s not the other storage vendors they’re looking to lock horns with. “We see the major server vendors as those who we will be going head to head with,” says Smith. “Traditionally with SMBs when they buy their servers, their storage comes inbuilt. That’s what we’re targeting.”
Hitachi claims backup and recovery may actually be a bigger problem for SMBs than their larger counterparts, given they don’t tend to have the high level technical storage skills that larger enterprises might have.
“SMBs often have the same needs as a corporate but nowhere near the budget,” says Smith.
Hitachi are offering the iSCUSI based storage system with between one to almost nine terabytes of capacity. Combining both storage and consumer electronic expertise in its vision, Hitachi says the key to the system is it’s simplicity; it will plug into the office using the same power outlets as Hitachi consumer products, offers an intuitive wizard-based GUI setup and auto-configuration software.
Non-stop data availability is also fundamental to the release with integrated backup technology and simple replication from one SMS 100 to another, or a central site for backup and disaster recovery purposes.
Simon Elisha, head solutions architect at Hitachi says the SMS 100 has been design from the ground up. “We haven’t taken an original product and ripped the brains out of it to make it fit,” he says. “We’re talking about a two rack unit high rectangle, self contained, normal outlet power, a unit that sits under the desk or wherever it’s needed”