Xiotech Introduces PowerNAP

Xiotech Corporation introduced the new PowerNAP feature for its Emprise 5000 storage system at the spring Storage Networking World conference. PowerNAP enables organizations to realize significant power and cooling cost savings by placing Emprise 5000 systems, based on Xiotech’s patented Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) technology, in a low-power stand-by mode during idle periods and quickly power them back up again when needed.

"With energy costs accounting for as much as 11 percent of the total cost of storage ownership, the savings PowerNAP can deliver are significant in situations where storage access requirements are intermittent," said Xiotech Director of Product Management Eric Lomascolo. "Our ISE technology, with its five-year warranty and 100 percent usable capacity, has helped our customers reduce operational expenses in their data centers, and PowerNAP takes these cost savings to a new level."

PowerNAP is available today on all Emprise 5000 systems, and is especially valuable for situations when organizations do not need their storage systems powered up all of the time, such as for backup to disk, disaster recovery, archival storage or remote sites that only need access during standard business hours. Using established and well known Wake-on-LAN protocols, PowerNAP can be initiated from either the system management interface or by logging into the system from a remote console, or it can be automated for regular, hands-off use. The typical power-down time with PowerNAP is 40 seconds, and when a system is powered down it uses less than 24 watts of power – a significant drop from the more than 500 watts it normally uses. The system then can be awakened and ready for I/O activity in just 60 seconds.

"PowerNAP represents yet another cutting-edge feature that all array makers should be offering today, but few are," said Toigo Partners International Founder and Senior Analyst Jon Toigo. "With storage outstripping servers as the biggest power pigs in the data center, and with cost containment front and center in the minds of management, reducing storage power consumption through automation is a significant value-add."