Utility storage provider 3PAR has launched new thin technologies which it claims to reduce the up-front cost of a storage technology refresh by up to 60% as compared to legacy arrays and keep costs low over time by keeping storage thin.
The company has announced four new software products, Thin Conversion, Thin Persistence, Thin Copy Reclamation, and Thin Reclamation for Veritas Storage Foundation.
The company said that the new software products are designed to boost capacity utilisation, increase datacentre efficiency, and support Green IT initiatives. The products leverage Thin Engine technology and the 3PAR Gen3 ASIC within all InServ storage servers with Thin Built In to power the conversion of ‘fat’ legacy volumes to efficient ‘thin’ volumes on InServ arrays.
According to 3PAR, Thin Conversion works by leveraging the Gen3 ASIC to detect allocated but unused capacity using built-in zero-detection capability, to free empty space as volumes are copied over to the InServ. The Thin Persistence and Thin Copy Reclamation software expand the benefits of Thin Provisioning and Thin Conversion by ensuring that thin volumes and thin copies on the InServ remain thin over time.
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The Thin Persistence uses Thin Engine technology in conjunction with the InServ’s built-in zero-detection capabilities to reclaim unused space associated with deleted data while Thin Copy Reclamation software performs a similar function, but instead it uses the 3PAR virtualisation mapping engine to reclaim unused space from virtual copy snapshots and remote copy volumes on the InServ, the company said.
3PAR and Symantec together have initiated a Thin Reclamation API that enables Veritas File System, part of Veritas Storage Foundation, to communicate with the InServ to reclaim space associated with file deletions. 3PAR Thin Reclamation for Veritas Storage Foundation is designed to enable InServ arrays to use granular file system-level information to autonomically reclaim unused space within thin InServ volumes so that they stay thin over time, 3PAR said.
David Scott, president and CEO of 3PAR, said: With 3PAR Thin Conversion, we believe customers are now able to cut the capital and operating costs of refreshing their storage technology by up to 60% as compared to legacy storage.
“With 3PAR Thin Persistence, 3PAR Thin Copy Reclamation, and 3PAR Thin Reclamation for Veritas Storage Foundation, they can keep their capacity requirements low to augment these savings even further. From a cost reduction standpoint, this could prove the ripest ‘low hanging fruit’ in the overall IT budget.”
