LSI Launches Syncro CS, Cheap High Availability Card For SMBs

Storage and networking experts at LSI have launched the first solution based on Syncro architecture – the Syncro CS card, designed to offer high availability in a Direct Attached Storage (DAS) environment for Windows Storage Server 2012.

The budget-friendly solution was developed especially for SMBs and remote offices in collaboration with Microsoft over the past three years.

It was unveiled at Microsoft TechEd conference in New Orleans on Monday.

Democratising high availability

Traditionally, high availability storage systems are costly, difficult to manage, and are better suited for large corporations than small businesses. They require each of the paired servers to have two sets of storage, in order to replicate storage changes, so if one experiences issues, the other takes over with no actual downtime.

However, if servers are equipped with a Syncro CS card, they can both access the same DAS for failover purposes. The clever devices offer simple out-of-the-box installation, and require almost no management.

Syncro CS is built on LSI’s MegaRAID technology and allows two deployment models: it can run on separate, discrete servers together with an off-the-shelf JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), or as a two-node Cluster-in-a-Box.

“As the entry direct-attached storage market segment experiences about 30 percent capacity growth year-over-year, the value of the data grows with it and increases the need for storage systems with higher availability,” said Dan Iacono, research director of storage systems at IDC.

“By enabling SMBs to lower the cost of their storage systems while simultaneously protecting their businesses with high-availability solutions like the LSI Syncro CS, business efficiency and continuity can be greatly improved.”

Syncro CS 9286-8e will start shipping this week at a price of $5495. Syncro CS 9271-8i for cluster-in-a-box deployment will cost slightly less – $5055.

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