According to Hu, “Enterprise Storage” is an object featuring multiple controllers, shared cache, High availability and scalability, more or less something like HDS USP-V, as opposed to “Modular storage”, a simple system designed primarly for DAS, only two controllers and mirrored cache, limited expansion and availability (really looks like he’s talking about AMS !!!). I know very well this point of view since we are an HDS Gold Partner here in Italy and we are being repeated this message over and over!!!
I think that the world in 2009 does not comprises just black or white, a much wider gamut of shadings is present.
I would like to add at least a third class of storage: Midrange Enterprise Storage! (Not USP-VM, something more or less like an “entry level” version of USP-V)
USP-V, just like big enterprise class storage systems from other vendors, are suitable for big companies only, the ones with a lot of hosts, performance needs , replication issues, surely companies sporting big budgets and lot of resources!
Indeed, I happen to find every day Small and Medium Enterprises with the same problems of big ones but with limited budgets and resources. This companies need virtualization, high availability, scalability, automated storage tiering, sophisticated replication and so on. They need to lower TCO every day too!
In one of my latest posts I compared Compellent Storage Center with the EMC V-MAX! Well, i’m not crazy, the comparison was more about some software features and not for the number of controllers or scalability sported by the new EMC model…. on the other hand you cannot compare feature by feature, Compellent to Clariion: Clariion has a very limited set of features! (limited replicas, limited snapshots and cloning, limited virtualization features, ecc, ecc). CX line from EMC has only a set of boxes with two controllers, a mirrored cache, raid and disks, limited scalability (3 models to range from 100 to 1000 disks). (note: EMC CX is similar to HDS AMS).
So, where can i position Compellent ???? The answer is: Compellent is a Midrange Enterprise Storage!
I might wonder the same question about NetApp or others, drawing the very same conclusion.
OK, EMC and HDS are striving to sell their high end (high margins) storage systems, but at present lots of enterprises look for less expensive solutions without having to give up features/functionalities/benefits!
ES