Isilon Guarantees 80% Utilization for its NAS

In its continued mission to set the standard for simplicity and value in file-based data storage, Isilon Systems announced the industry’s first and only guaranteed commitment to provide a single file system up to 3.45 petabytes (PB) and greater than 80 percent storage utilization, with solutions beginning at less than $1 per Gigabyte (GB). Unlike other storage vendor guarantee programs, the Isilon Scale-out NAS Guarantee Program is available to all new and existing customers that purchase a new system of at least 10 terabytes (TB) between May 14 and December 31, 2009.

This chart uses published data to illustrate how Isilon’s Scale-out NAS
Guarantee Program compares against the capabilities of two leading
vendors’ traditional, scale-up NAS systems.

Leveraging the inherent advantages of its unique clustered architecture over traditional, scale-up NAS and SAN systems, Isilon IQ scale-out NAS currently provides nearly 1000 customers with easy to use, simple to manage, and highly scalable storage systems that maximize capital and operational investments in storage infrastructure.

"As enterprises increasingly rely on mission-critical file-based data to drive business operations, traditional NAS and SAN storage systems continue to restrict innovation and growth, establishing a status quo of inefficiency, complexity and unnecessary expense," said Ram Appalaraju, vice president of marketing, Isilon Systems. "With Isilon’s Guarantee Program, we are standing against the industry’s status quo and enabling customers to get what they deserve – value, simplicity and confidence."

"In a recent ESG survey of 492 storage buyers, reducing operational and capital costs were identified as the two most important considerations for justifying IT spend in the next twelve months," said Terri McClure, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "Scale-out NAS can help on both fronts because the simplicity and efficiency of a single file system ensures there is no stranded capacity, which in turn, drives significantly higher utilization rates and eases the management burden associated with file server sprawl. Higher utilization rates provide three primary benefits – optimal return on investment, deferred purchases of additional capacity, and the ability to scale capacity without scaling headcount – to deliver maximum value in file-based data storage."

"Scale-out NAS stands out with its plug-and-play simplicity for fast deployment and ongoing management," said Pushan Rinnen, research director, Gartner. "Not only is scale-out NAS easy to deploy, its ‘pay as you grow’ scaling presents a compelling alternative over the often lengthy deployment and expansion procedures of scale-up architectures."

Isilon’s Guarantee Program
includes the following commitments:

• Single File System – Leveraging Isilon’s OneFS operating system software, Isilon guarantees a single file system scaling from 10 TB to 3.45 PB, delivering industry-leading simplicity, ease of use, and efficiency in storage management to increase performance for a full spectrum of file-based data applications, all from a single point of management. With Isilon IQ, customers can manage 10 TB as easily as 3 PB, significantly reducing operational expenditures associated with storage administration tasks and personnel.
• 80 Percent Utilization – Due to the inherent efficiency of its single file system, Isilon guarantees greater than 80 percent utilization of storage capacity, a significant improvement over traditional SAN and NAS utilization rates of 50-60 percent. By providing higher system utilization, Isilon scale-out NAS delivers up to 60 percent more storage at the same raw capacity over competing solutions