In May this year HP began shipping NAS gateways that consisted of up to 16 Linux-powered file servers tied together by PolyServe’s software and shared file system. Now the company has launched the same set-up, but with file servers powered by Windows Storage Server 2003.
HP is aiming at customers who are continuing to consolidate their sprawling Windows NAS servers, and need ever larger filers or gateways for the task. The Linux-powered HP NAS cluster cannot be used to consolidate Windows filers, because it only handles CIFS via Samba code running on one node – making it highly available but not scalable for CIFS file serving. Meanwhile the Linux cluster will deliver better NFS performance than the Windows cluster.
HP’s PolyServe-powered gateways will be the first Windows-powered NAS clusters to be offered by a tier-one vendor.
