Dot Hill Hybrid Ultra48 Array Available With Autonomic Tiering RealStor V2.0

Dot Hill Systems Corp. announced the Ultra48 AssuredSAN hybrid arrays are available with RealStor version 2.0 application workload-aware intelligence.

By combining RealStor 2.0 with the Ultra48, the company is delivering a family of hybrid arrays that challenges the current competitive landscape with game-changing enterprise management features and performance at a price-performance point.

The Ultra48, incorporating dual high performance AssuredSAN 4004 controllers, is built on ultra-density chassis, housing nearly 58TB of data on small form factor HDDss and/or SSDs, in 2U of rack space while yielding density.

StorageReview noted: “Given the density versus the footprint required for other all-HDD configured systems, the Ultra48 offers a performance per rack unit profile that may not be able to be achieved with any other storage system.”

Now this array is equipped with RealStor 2.0’s real-time autonomic tiering, SSDs and other enterprise features.

Ultra48 Hybrid Array with RealStor 2.0 stands alone
Other flash-based storage solutions fall short in their attempts to address the constantly changing data challenges faced by organizations today. All-flash arrays deliver expensive performance and unaffordable capacity, while competing hybrid storage solutions only offer read caching or batch data migration, rather than autonomic real-time tiering. The Ultra48 with RealStor 2.0 raises the bar on hybrid array capability and stands alone in its ability to deliver performance and real-time data placement, while maintaining ease-of-use, affordability and density.

“The powerful combination of the Ultra48 and RealStor 2.0 creates a unique hybrid offering which gives our customers enterprise management features and performance at an affordable price point,” said Dana Kammersgard, president and CEO, Dot Hill. “This platform combines the best of Dot Hill software and hardware innovation to deliver next-generation hybrid array solutions. Our customers told us that they have extreme floor space constraints in their data centers and lack the time and skill sets to migrate data between flash and disk manually; most certainly do not have the budgets for all-flash arrays. That’s why we developed the Ultra48 with RealStor 2.0.“

The Ultra48 hybrid array takes advantage of multiple embedded processors to provide accelerated, predictable performance for demanding workloads. With redundant and hot-swappable components, it provides serviceability resulting in lower support costs through the life of the product.

As with all reliable AssuredSAN solutions, it delivers 99.999% data availability. Backed by an 37-month ‘bumper-to-bumper’ warranty, Ultra48 storage solutions are available with interfaces including 12Gb SAS, 16Gb FC, 10GbE iSCSI or dual personality 16Gb FC/10GbE iSCSI.

Performance

• RealTier autonomic real-time tiering allows organizations to save up to 75% on storage expenses by efficiently using lower-cost storage. By providing real-time, autonomic data tiering, the RealTier feature allows to deliver performance comparable to all-flash arrays at a fraction of the price. Workload optimizationis built into the tiering algorithm, which separates streaming and transaction workflows and places data on the appropriate tier immediately to increase both read and write operations.

• RealCache SSD read caching provides on-demand performance for peak loads, far exceeding memory cache capabilities of the controller. SSD read cache allows SSD cache to become an extension of the controller cache, increasing effective cache capacity by up to 100x and increasing IO/s performance for read-centric workloads. Entire LUNs can be assigned or ‘pinned’ into solid-state storage in order to deliver predictable performance to a specific application workload.

• SimulCache streamlines dual controller write operations for increased throughput performance.

Reliability

• HA is delivered via redundant hot-swap components and active/active controller failover, resulting in proven 99.999% availability.

• RealQuick RAID rebuild improves system up-time and data protection by reducing the risk of data loss in the event of a SSD or HDD failure. Rebuilding only the data that is being used, translates into up to 10 times faster restore time. With nothing to set or configure, this feature restores complete fault tolerance faster to the volume and reduces the duration of potential application performance degradation due to one or multiple device failures.

• RealSnap virtual snapshots streamline the action of creating point-in-time images, providing capabilities to snap volumes multiple times with no performance impact for improved backup and recovery. Snaps can be nested hierarchically and are writable.

• EcoStor supercapacitor technology with battery-free cache backup is designed to surpass the life of the system, therefore eliminating batteries. This makes the controller maintenance-free and keeps data in cache memory permanently stored even in the event of complete loss of power.

Driving Affordability and Ease-of-Use

• RealThin thin provisioning for optimized capacity management offers capacity management, which reduces the cost of capacity investments by up to 50%. Instead of reserving and consuming storage when host volumes are created, thin provisioning only consumes capacity as needed by applications.

• RealPool simplifies disk management in heterogeneous environments and enables a wide array of advanced features. While competitors’ products create one pool per device type (performance, standard, archive), RealStor 2.0’s virtualized pools can combine any and all device types into a single, versatile pool. This enables users to leverage multiple device types for added flexibility and optimization.

• Cost-effective scalability to over half a petabyte with no capacity-based license fees. Ultra-dense packaging that can be cost-effectively deployed with a hybrid mix of solid state and HDD devices, or an all-disk array.

“The combination of RealStor 2.0 software with best-in-class tiering, caching and Ultra48 hardware configured with a right-sized mix of performance-optimized flash and cost-optimized disk delivers the best bang for the buck,” said Brian Garrett, VP, ESG Lab. “A next-generation hybrid array from Dot Hill is the perfect prescription for IT managers who are struggling to cost-effectively meet the exploding storage demands of the business.“

The RealStor 2.0 base license is included standard with all Ultra48 AssuredSAN models. Customers who have previously purchased Ultra48 systems can acquire the RealStor 2.0 software suite from authorized Dot Hill partners. The premium RealTier autonomic real-time tiering feature is available via a licensing key and upgrade charge.