Next Generation of Thin Technologies by 3par

3PAR announced the introduction of several industry-first, next-generation technologies designed to reduce the up-front cost of a storage technology refresh by up to 60% as compared to legacy arrays and keep costs low over time by keeping storage thin.

These new software products from 3PAR – 3PAR Thin Conversion, 3PAR Thin Persistence, 3PAR Thin Copy Reclamation, and 3PAR Thin Reclamation for Veritas Storage Foundation – build on the InServ Storage Server’s unique Thin Built In hardware architecture and new virtualization mapping engine for space reclamation called Thin Engine. Like 3PAR Thin Provisioning software, these new software products are designed to boost capacity utilization, increase datacentre efficiency, and support Green IT initiatives. The four new software products announced today leverage Thin Engine technology and the 3PAR Gen3 ASIC within all InServ Storage Servers with Thin Built In to power the conversion of ‘fat’ legacy volumes to more efficient ‘thin’ volumes on InServ arrays and work to keep these volumes and their copies thin over time.
 
Thin technologies are a key element of 3PAR’s strategy of helping customers reduce capacity purchases both up-front and over time in order to lower capital and operating costs, reduce administration time, improve storage ROI, and lessen the environmental impact of the datacentre.
 
Start Thin: 3PAR’s Thin Technology Heritage
Since the introduction of 3PAR Thin Provisioning software in 2002, 3PAR has given customers the ability to reduce up to 75% of their capacity requirements and meet Green IT targets by eliminating the substantial problem of allocated but unused capacity. 3PAR Thin Provisioning has also been demonstrated to reduce administration time by up to 90% by streamlining and automating the provisioning process.
 
Get Thin: 3PAR Thin Conversion
With Thin Conversion, a storage technology refresh no longer requires a terabyte-for-terabyte replacement, but instead gives customers the opportunity to eliminate up to 75% of the capacity required by their legacy arrays for a cost savings of up to 60% as compared to purchasing legacy storage. 3PAR Thin Conversion gives customers with legacy ‘fat’ volumes a simple and affordable option for ‘thinning’ these volumes by migrating them over to the InServ.
 
Thin Conversion works by leveraging the Gen3 ASIC, which is designed to detect allocated but unused capacity using built-in zero-detection capability, along with Thin Engine – a virtualization mapping engine for space reclamation – to free empty space as volumes are copied over to the InServ, thereby reducing the amount of capacity required to hold customer data. Because Thin Conversion works in conjunction with built-in hardware capabilities, this process takes place inline, at wire speeds, while preserving service levels, and without disruption to production workloads. Reducing storage capacity requirements also produces ongoing cost savings such as lowering cooling, powering, and floor space costs as well as environmental benefits related to reducing carbon footprint.
 
Stay Thin:
3PAR Thin Persistence and 3PAR Thin Copy Reclamation
An industry first, 3PAR Thin Persistence and 3PAR Thin Copy Reclamation software augment the benefits of 3PAR Thin Provisioning and 3PAR Thin Conversion by ensuring that thin volumes and thin copies on the InServ remain thin over time. 3PAR Thin Provisioning customers have already realized an average capacity savings of 60% over legacy storage. These new ‘stay thin’ technologies are intended to further augment these savings.
 
Like 3PAR Thin Conversion, Thin Persistence uses Thin Engine technology in conjunction with the InServ’s built-in zero-detection capabilities to reclaim unused space associated with deleted data. By leveraging the built-in hardware capability of the Gen3 ASIC, Thin Persistence delivers the ongoing ‘thinning’ of InServ volumes inline, at wire speeds, while preserving service levels, and without disruption to production workloads. 3PAR Thin Copy Reclamation performs a similar function, but instead of applying Thin Engine technology to space reclamation for thin volumes, it uses the 3PAR virtualization mapping engine to reclaim unused space from virtual copy snapshots and remote copy volumes on the InServ.
 
“Thin provisioning has helped us meet the terms of our green computing initiative as well as our cost objectives by slashing our capacity and energy requirements,” said Brandon Mason, VP of Technology at AudienceScience. “The fact that 3PAR is now offering ways to extend these benefits even further by enabling our datacentre to remain as efficient as possible is extremely exciting to us at AudienceScience.”
 
“Thin provisioning should be widely deployed in most datacentres because it is an easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy disk storage system capacity reduction feature that lowers storage TCO, usually without any significant effects on native performance/throughput,” said Stanley Zaffos, Research Vice President, Storage and I/O at Gartner. “Recent thin provisioning enhancements that lower initial storage capacity needs and reclaim capacity that has been allocated to physical and virtualized servers but is currently unused further increases the operational and financial importance of thin provisioning. The potential savings in storage capacity attributable to thin provisioning demand that it at least be considered in most technology refreshes of legacy storage systems.”
 
Developing a Thin Ecosystem
3PAR also continues to work with partners such as Symantec to develop a thin ecosystem that extends the benefits of thin technologies within the datacentre. For example, together 3PAR and Symantec pioneered a Thin Reclamation API that enables Veritas File System, part of Veritas Storage Foundation, to intelligently communicate with the InServ to reclaim space associated with file deletions. 3PAR Thin Reclamation for Veritas Storage Foundation is the first software to take advantage of this API. This new software product from 3PAR is designed to enable InServ arrays to use granular file system-level information to autonomically reclaim unused space within thin InServ volumes so that they stay thin over time.
 
“Symantec is committed to helping IT organizations optimize their storage infrastructure,” said Josh Kahn, Vice President Storage and Availability Management at Symantec. “We are thrilled to see 3PAR introduce Thin Reclamation support for Veritas Storage Foundation. Together we are helping our customers improve utilization and simplify operations.”
 
"With these new thin storage products and our new Thin Engine, 3PAR has given customers a powerful means of slashing their technology refresh costs and then keeping ongoing costs as low as possible,” said David Scott, 3PAR President and CEO. “With 3PAR Thin Conversion, we believe customers are now able to cut the capital and operating costs of refreshing their storage technology by up to 60% as compared to legacy storage. With 3PAR Thin Persistence, 3PAR Thin Copy Reclamation, and 3PAR Thin Reclamation for Veritas Storage Foundation, they can keep their capacity requirements low to augment these savings even further. From a cost reduction standpoint, this could prove the ripest ‘low hanging fruit’ in the overall IT budget.”
 
3PAR Thin Conversion and 3PAR Thin Persistence are additional 3PAR software products. The 3PAR Thin Persistence license also includes 3PAR Thin Reclamation for Veritas Storage Foundation. 3PAR Thin Copy Reclamation is available at no extra charge as part of the InForm Operating System Version 2.3.1. All thin software products are orderable today.