StorTrends 2401i IP-SAN/NAS by American Megatrends

American Megatrends Inc. (AMI) introduced its StorTrends 2401i IP-SAN / NAS storage appliance. Extending the StorTrends IP-SAN / NAS series from AMI, this new solution adds the features of StorTrends iTX network storage software in a 2U, 12-bay form factor. With support for both SATA and SAS hard drives to balance capacity and performance needs, the StorTrends 2401i can provide up to 256 TB of raw storage capacity through JBOD expansion.
 
The StorTrends 2401i storage appliance merges Ethernet-based Storage Area Networks (IP-SAN) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) on a single storage platform with the storage capacity and features to support the storage management needs of small to medium sized business (SMB) users. For either primary or secondary storage, it provides versatility, performance and manageability at an attractive price.
 
In addition to its IP-SAN capabilities, the StorTrends 2401i is also a NAS storage appliance with the flexibility and performance to be an alternative to traditional Direct Attached Storage (DAS) environments. The NAS capability of the StorTrends 2401i makes it simple to centralize file data storage for Windows, Linux, and Mac clients across an existing Ethernet network. Easy to install, the StorTrends 2401i goes from ‘carton to configured’ in under 15 minutes and enables an administrator to coordinate all functions related to storage discovery, management, tracking and planning for future storage growth.
 
This new 2U IP-SAN / NAS storage appliance adds improvements over the existing StorTrends 2400i, including a LSI MegaRAID 9280 RAID controller, two additional NIC ports and SAS expander for JBOD expansion capacity, as well as the full-featured version of StorTrends iTX Network Storage Software. It features the ManageTrends GUI for ‘single pane of glass’ storage management and a host of advanced features that until now only existed in systems costing more, such as OS-agnostic High Availability, Volume Replication with Wide Area Data Services (Data Deduplication, Compression, Encryption and WAN Optimization), Advanced Snapshots, Thin / Auto Provisioning, Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) and much more.
 
American Megatrends President and CEO S. Shankar notes that "because the StorTrends 2401i is a ‘dual dialect’ storage appliance that allows simultaneous IP-SAN and NAS functions on the same drives, it conserves hardware and integration costs and precious rack space. From data backup and recovery, remote or local storage, to replication and multiple site backups, the StorTrends 2401i does it all."
 
Expandability is a key attribute of the StorTrends 2401i. Along with its new SAS expander for JBOD expansion, the option to add two additional NIC ports or 10 Gigabit Ethernet means blazing fast network performance. With the ability to expand up to 256 TB via StorTrends 3201j JBODs, the StorTrends 2401i enables organizations to solve all of their data storage pain points with a single StorTrends appliance. Its sophisticated Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) module analyzes data for its value, and stores it accordingly – in the fastest, top-tier storage for the most popular data, automatically migrating to less expensive storage as it loses value. For IT departments struggling to contain the cost of adding new storage and exploding volumes of data, ILM can manage data growth and accessibility, reduce cost, improve recovery, and remove risk and exposure to data loss.
 
OS agnostic High Availability and Synchronous Replication makes this new IP-SAN a solid candidate for mission-critical data that requires ‘always on’ availability and reliability. When two StorTrends 2401i appliances are configured in a High Availability pair, the auto failover capability ensures that any disaster or interruption is handled.
 
The Volume Replication capability of the StorTrends 2401i IP-SAN appliance allows data to be stored on multiple StorTrends units at multiple sites, and takes advantage of powerful Wide Area Data Services (WDS) to dramatically reduce data transfer times to remote sites and reduce bandwidth usage. WDS incorporates Data Deduplication, Compression, Encryption and WAN Optimization to accelerate replication between sites and lower bandwidth costs, making the StorTrends 2401i ideally suited for DR applications requiring a secondary appliance in an offsite location.
 
The patented, lighting-fast Redirect on Write (ROW) snapshot technology featured in the StorTrends 2401i means that snapshots are written to disk in a matter of milliseconds – with no performance loss no matter how many snapshots are taken. Auto Provisioning for NAS volumes takes Thin Provisioning a step further by allowing administrators to automatically ‘grow as you go’, by setting the Provisioning Wizard in StorTrends iTX to the volume size needed and letting it take care of the rest. Finally, the StorTrends 2401i offers ‘green’ credentials, using hardware for efficient power consumption and low heat generation, and variable speed fans for heat dissipation and maximum efficiency.
 
Paresh Chatterjee, Chief Technology Officer of AMI, points out the economy of using the 2401i appliance in a Disaster Recovery (DR) solution. "The DR model with the StorTrends 2401i offers two physically redundant systems at a price below most standalone dual-controller systems, along with increased storage capacity plus superior reliability and uptime compared to the competition. Thus, the user can implement a true DR solution for less than he or she would normally invest on a single site array," he says.