Acer Expands Server And Storage Portfolio With Hitachi Deal

Acer America Corp is looking to the small to medium business segment with the news that it has extended its line of server and storage solutions for the US market.

The storage systems are integrated with Acer’s server solutions and are designed to help customers manage escalating storage growth while optimising data security and availability for Microsoft Exchange Server, VMware, databases and other business applications.

Acer’s expanded storage offering is the result of the company’s partnership with Hitachi Data Systems, and includes the AS2040 storage system and the Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 (AMS 2000) family of scalable storage systems. All three storage systems are supported by storage networking connectivity solutions from Qlogic.

SMB Storage

The AS2040 storage arrays support up to 180 terabytes of data using multiple RAID levels and offer data security capabilities through a symmetric active-active architecture. Load-balancing logic monitors controller workloads, and users can configure systems with mixed tiers of SAS and Serial ATA drives. The SAS back-end design provides switch point-to-point connectivity to disk drives, and support for more than 2,000 logical volumes. Data availability is further enhanced through online microcode updates and redundant, hot-swappable spares.

The AMS 2000 family includes the AMS 2100 and AMS 2300 systems. The AMS 2100 system supports up to 512 virtual server ports and scalable capacity up to 236 TB, while the AMS 2300 supports up to 2048 virtual server ports and 472 TB of capacity. The Hi-Track Remote Monitoring system provides round-the-clock system diagnostics, and Hitachi TrueCopy Remote Replication software provides a continuous, non-disruptive, host-independent remote data-replication solution for disaster recovery, data retention or data migration over any distance.

The company noted price depends on configuration and base configurations (five hard drives), and begins at $11,699 (£8,104) for the Acer Hitachi AS2040 storage array, $18,499 (£12,815) for the Acer Hitachi AMS 2100 storage array and $31,499 (£21,822) for the Acer Hitachi AMS 2300 storage array.

Like Acer’s companion server line, all Acer and jointly branded Acer Hitachi storage products are available only through indirect sales channels.

Cost Effective Option

“These tailored storage solutions meet customer demand for cost-effective storage performance, simplified storage management and return on storage investment over time,” said Bruce Chumley, vice president of Americas strategic alliances for Hitachi Data Systems. “Hitachi and Acer are committed to providing US customers with solutions that enable them to simultaneously manage explosive data growth, IT costs, complex applications, legal compliance and security.”

Acer’s storage offering is supported by converged network adapters, host bus adapters and Fibre Channel switches from QLogic. The company’s latest US storage systems join its recently introduced Acer NAS (network-attached storage) line, which offer features like RAID, redundant hot-plug power, redundant hot-plug cooling, and data de-duplication and snapshot capabilities.

“The selection of QLogic as Acer’s go-to-market partner for Fibre Channel and 10GbE converged networking technology broadens QLogic’s reach into the SMB space,” said Satish Lakshmanan, senior director of product marketing for QLogic’s host solutions group. “With unique technologies such as QLogic ConvergeFlex, which enables convergence of storage and data networking through concurrent multiprotocol support on the same hardware, QLogic provides Acer SMB customers with networking solutions that are designed for today’s virtualised world, delivering superior performance and features while consuming minimal power.”