BridgeSTOR Ships Optimised Storage Appliance

BridgeSTOR on 23 March started shipping a new optimised storage appliance for midrange-sized IT systems that find themselves dealing with ever-increasing workloads. And that means just about everybody.

Dubbed the Application Optimised Storage Appliance for Network Storage, the new offering is designed to trim operational costs for storage capacity, power, cooling and management across both network-attached storage and iSCSI storage-area network environments, the company said.

ASIC-accelerated deduplication

The appliance handles with efficiency the growth in data stored in these systems through a combination of ASIC-accelerated deduplication, thin provisioning and compression, chief executive John Matze said.

The appliance combines Hewlett-Packard’s server hardware with Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2, and BridgeSTOR’s Virtual Storage/Advanced Data Reduction. “It reduces the need for storage hardware as aggressively as VMware reduces the need for server hardware,” Matze said.

BridgeStor’s Virtual Storage-Advanced Data Reduction software combines inline, ASIC-assisted block-level data compression and deduplication with its own brand of thin provisioning for optimised and scalable storage, Matze said. The combined impact of VS-ADR and thin provisioning cuts capital expenses on storage hardware, which in turn reduces operational costs for power, cooling and storage administration as much as 70 percent, he said.

Can Scale up to 33TB, If Needed

The BridgeSTOR AOS Appliance for Network Storage enables businesses to start with virtual storage capacities as small as 2.6TB that can be scaled up to 33TB of usable RAID-5 (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks Level 5) capacity, Matze said.

VS-ADR provides compression and global deduplication across both block and file data pools. The appliance can be deployed for high-availability applications in optional dual-active configurations, Matze said.

BridgeSTOR also offers AOS Appliances for VMware Virtualisation, Backup Exec 2010, Microsoft DPM and Network Storage. AOS Appliances start at $20,000 (£12,400) and are available exclusively through channel partners, Matze said.