LSI enhances Engenio 7900 Storage System

BANGALORE, INDIA: LSI Corporation has announced enhancements to the Engenio 7900 Storage System which provide midrange storage area network (SAN) customers with a “future-proof” storage infrastructure designed to meet the demands of continuous data growth and evolving application, configuration and capacity requirements.

New LSI Engenio 7900 features and functionality include 8Gb/s Fibre Channel (8GFC) interfaces, which provide up to twice the bandwidth per channel between server and storage, and pay-as-you-grow scalability up to 448 drives for nearly double the capacity. SafeStore encryption services also have been added for comprehensive data-at-rest security using self-encrypting drives (SED), as well as a simplified management interface that doesn’t sacrifice control.

"Meeting enterprises' evolving infrastructure and application requirements is always a critical challenge for IT suppliers, but in these difficult economic times, IT executives also require solutions that protect IT investments," said Richard Villars, vice president of Storage System and IT Executive Strategies at IDC. "Solutions like the LSI Engenio 7900 that support 8Gb/s FC and advanced data encryption in a scalable platform provide a solid foundation for enterprises that need to deal with evolving storage demands."

8GFC technology with “future-proof” investment protection

The Engenio 7900 is one of the industry’s first enterprise-class midrange storage systems based on 8GFC technology. It combines 8GFC connectivity with industry-leading, mixed workload performance and configuration flexibility to meet the diverse application requirements of large-scale virtualization and consolidation implementations, high-performance computing and data warehousing environments.

The system’s 8GFC host cards eliminate the need to make trade-offs between system performance and server I/O slot conservation by reducing the number of host bus adapters (HBAs) per server and the number of overall ports in the Fibre Channel SAN infrastructure required to deliver comparable performance. This results in lower hardware acquisition and operational costs through fewer components and infrastructure simplification.

The system’s ability to auto-negotiate Fibre Channel links allows it to seamlessly integrate into an existing 2GFC or 4GFC infrastructure to provide customers in these environments with immediate performance and connectivity benefits. By utilizing existing infrastructure, the 7900 establishes a foundation for the future upgrade to 8GFC SAN environments.

Scalability also has been nearly doubled to address today’s exponential rate of data growth. With the ability to support up to 448 drives, the 7900 offers linear scalability to the levels needed to meet the most demanding performance and capacity requirements.

Comprehensive data-at-rest security without performance penalties

The 7900 adds SafeStore encryption services to address the rising costs of data breaches and public disclosure resulting from lost, misplaced or stolen hard drives, as well as routine activities such as servicing or decommissioning defective drives. In 2008, the litigation, remedy and lost revenue associated with data breaches cost companies an average of $6.6 million per incident.*

SafeStore helps organizations to minimize the risk of costly data exposure and meet new government regulations. It combines local key management and self-encrypting drives to effectively secure data throughout a drive’s lifecycle from initial installation to servicing, redeployment and final disposal. SafeStore provides a comprehensive data-at-rest solution that secures data contained on drives within the data center without sacrificing performance or ease of use.

The solution is fully integrated into LSI SANtricity Storage Manager software. Key management is transparent to day-to-day storage administration, making SEDs as easy to manage as traditional hard drives. With advanced features such as “instant secure erase,” a sub-second method for destroying all the data contained on an SED, regardless of drive capacity, SafeStore provides an even higher level of data erasure than traditional methods for re-provisioning and disposal of drives.

“Facing relentless data growth and a turbulent economic climate, businesses need storage solutions that reduce costs now and future-proof infrastructure investments,” said Vic Mahadevan, vice president of marketing and product management, Engenio Storage Group, LSI. “The Engenio 7900 allows users to immediately realize the performance and efficiency benefits of 8GFC technology while delivering the piece of mind that data is securely stored regardless of its physical or virtual location.”

Enhancements to the 7900 system also include a new GUI for the SANtricity Storage Manager software. The updated management interface provides an ideal combination of robustness and ease of use in a midrange system. It offers full-time system administrators complete configuration control and part-time administrators the simplicity of an intuitive interface that helps to ensure optimal storage utilization.

The LSI Engenio 7900 with 8GFC and SafeStore encryption services is immediately available to OEM customers. SafeStore encryption services will soon span LSI MegaRAID adapters and additional Engenio storage systems, bringing the benefits of drive-level encryption and affordable data security to businesses of all sizes from SMBs to the enterprise.