BUSINESS TECH | Modular Smart Array storage solutions for SMBs
An entry-level hybrid flash storage solution designed for small to medium businesses that demand performance and automation without the high cost of innovation.
Source: HPE
Digital transformation is not just for the big guys. As organizational needs continue to evolve, small nd medium businesses (SMBs) need to embrace available technologies to drive automation and innovation.
With the price of flash technology continuing to drop, Hybrid Flash Arrays (HFAs) are becoming more compelling to SMB customers wanting to run critical applications such as databases, email and ERP systems in a more cost-effective manner. By mixing the speed of flash with the capacity of HDDs, the hybrid approach offers a balanced infrastructure between performance and capacity.
Recently, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced its Gen 6 of Modular Smart Array. This new generation storage, is an entry-level hybrid flash storage solution designed for small to medium businesses that demand performance and automation without the high cost of innovation.
The HPE MSA storage family brings affordable flash storage down to the most price sensitive customers. It carries on its tradition of delivering a combination of simplicity, flexibility, and advanced features not found in other entry-priced arrays.
Designed to meet entry-level storage requirements, it is a good fit for SMBs that are facing budget constraints. The HPE MSA Gen 6 comes in three models; 1060, 2060, and 2062. The MSA 1060 comes with two controllers per array, two hosts per controller, either 16 Gb FC, 1/10GbE iSCSI (10GBase-T), or 12 Gb SAS connectivity, performance is quoted at 154K IOPS with 6.6GB/s throughput and 368TB maximum capacity per array.
The MSA 2060 and 2062, a flexible flash-ready storage also has two controllers per array with four host ports per controller, the same connectivity options as the MSA 1060 but with a maximum of 325K IOPS and 13.1GB/s and 921TB maximum capacity per array.
Advancements to the HPE MSA Gen 6 Architecture
Updates to HPE MSA deliver benefits that help to meet the needs of SMBs, including automatic tiering for faster data access, an improved MSA Health Check tool that eliminates common causes of downtime, and integration with HPE Cloud Volumes Backup for cloud backup and data archival. The new features include:
• Hands-free tiering that delivers workload efficiency with improved performance and lower latencies. This feature boosts delivered performance by 2x to 4x compared to hard disk drive (HDD)-only configurations, and allows the array to respond to changing workloads utilizing a small amount of solid state drives (SSDs). This feature moves the hottest data to the fastest media in real-time, allowing customers to more effectively maximize SSD performance and HDD capacity based on workload needs.
• A new level of in-array data protection with the new MSA Data Protection Plus (MSA DP+). This protection capability spans all drives, and eliminates idle HDD spares to improve overall system efficiency and performance. In the event of a drive failure, MSA DP+ would speed rebuild times by 25×2, dramatically minimizing the time the array was in a degraded or vulnerable state.
• Improved MSA Health Check tool that eliminates common causes of downtime. With this tool, data shows that 76% of HPE MSA support calls will be eliminated for customers who utilize the MSA Health Check functionality proactively. This cloud-base tool reduces local administration overhead by searching sensor data for known issues, and adherence to best practices, improving the user experience and maximizing availability.
• Integration with HPE Cloud Volumes Backup to provide customers a simple and inexpensive route to cloud-based data protection, while saving money on a separate backup appliance. SMBs can instantly start backing up to the cloud with HPE Cloud Volumes Backup, a built-in enterprise cloud backup service using HPE Recover Manager Central, without changing any existing backup workloads. HPE Cloud Volumes Backup cloud services are also now available through HPE GreenLake.
HPE has a robust portfolio of solutions for SMBs, including the recently announced monthly subscription service for secure, easy-to-use IT solutions through HPE channel partners, and the HPE MicroServer, providing a small office-in-a-box solution for a complete small office technology foundation.
