Imation Adding Nexsan NST2000 FC Hybrid Storage Appliance

Imation Corp. introduced the Nexsan NST2000 – a hybrid storage appliance purpose-built for media and entertainment and data protection workloads that will deliver FC connectivity and the benefits of hybrid storage to mid-sized organizations.

The NST2000 is an entry-level when it comes to its price point – it expands upon Nexsan NST family of hybrid storage solutions. It will be available in the second quarter.

It delivers a simple to deploy and manage hybrid storage solution using performance technologies, and provides the scalability and flexibility to meet the needs of organizations that continue to rapidly add new applications to their environments. With an intelligent hybrid caching layer, NST2000 is optimized for mixed application workloads, media and entertainment workflows and data protection strategies. NST2000 is for organizations looking to move toward hybrid storage and take advantage of performance, availability and reliability.

“Customers rely on Chesapeake Systems for our specialization in media, entertainment and broadcast workflows. As the industry moves toward more heterogeneous environments, it’s critical for hybrid storage options to be accessible to operations of all sizes,” said Nicolas Gold, chief revenue officer, Chesapeake Systems. “Imation’s Nexsan solutions – and specifically its NST2000 – bring the file and block services, hybrid efficiency, and redundancy for HA inherent in high-end systems and make them more financially approachable for smaller operations. This is an excellent complement to the NST line, and we look forward to working more with Imation to help our customers realize these benefits.“

“Hybrid storage solutions could really revolutionize how video teams get their work done,” said Sam Bogoch, CEO, axle Video. “Imation’s Nexsan NST solutions are fast, flexible, dense and scalable. We’re excited to expand our relationship with Imation, which will help more customers benefit from this cutting-edge technology.“

As with all of the hybrid storage systems in the NST product family, NST2000 has a standard all-inclusive software licensing model which includes features such as:

• Unified FC support – It expands the Nexsan NST family’s unified block and file sharing capabilities by adding FC connectivity for those SMBs that prefer it for their applications. This gives organizations the ability to take advantage of the benefits of NST’s hybrid storage using a range of unified storage protocols, including iSCSI, NFS, CIFS, FTP and now FC.

• Capacity scalability – Capacities start at 13TB and can scale up to 168TB and 2TB FASTier cache, delivering much more flexibility to IT administrators.

• Intelligent hybrid caching – It combines intelligent caching algorithms with SSD and the latest processor technology to provide fast performance for business critical applications.

• Enhanced data reduction – It delivers faster and smarter inline compression. Compressible data can be processed 50% faster than with preceding NST arrays, and intelligence removes the penalty of trying to act upon noncompressible data.

“With the introduction of the NST2000, organizations have an entirely new set of options for storing, managing and protecting the high-value data they create in situations like digital asset management in media and entertainment workflows,” said Mike Stolz, VP marketing and technical support, Nexsan solutions, Imation. “They can deploy hybrid storage, realize new levels of performance, scale their data centers to new levels of capacity and much more – all at a price point that was previously inaccessible to them given their limited budgets and resources. We’re excited to help these organizations operate more efficiently and generate more ROI from their storage investment – and to add the NST2000 to help address a full range of application requirements.“

“The new NST2000 is just the latest proof point that Imation has raised the bar with its Nexsan product portfolio,” said Deni Connor, founder, SSG-Now. “Imation is a company with a strong vision for storage and the breadth and depth of a hybrid storage product family for a segment of the market that desperately needs it. Now with its NST2000, mid-sized organizations can take full advantage of the benefits this product provides.“

Nexsan NST is a set of hybrid storage appliances that scale to meet mid-sized organization application and storage needs with unified NAS and SAN access capabilities in a single solution.

Other product lines in Nexsan portfolio of purpose-built storage solutions are:

• Nexsan E-Series is a family of density, performance and reliable storage solutions that can be directly attached or networked to workstations and servers.

• Nexsan Assureon is a set of secure storage solutions that reduce storage cost by offloading and deduplicating data from primary storage that is infrequently used or has aged by policy.