Sun beefs up modular arrays
To 448TB but no SAS or SSD
SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had
Sun has upgraded its StorageTek modular array line with two new products using tried and tested ingredients to take capacity up to 448TB.
After launching its Sun-branded 7000 unified storage line last November the company has now refreshed its comparatively bare modular arrays with the StorageTek 6580 and 6780.
The 7000 line includes ZFS, rendering HW RAID redundant, NFS and CIFS file access and iSCSI block access, plus solid state drives and SAS and SATA hard drives. In comparison the StorageTek 6000 products are straight modular arrays with SATA (up to 1TB) and FC drives, RAID hardware controllers and Fibre Channel interfaces.
Sun resells HDS-based 9900 high-end arrays above the 6000 and 7000 lines.
Before today the mid-range 6000 line consisted of the 112TB and drive 6140 entry-level array and the 224 TB and drive 6540 high-end system. This Sun product set is comparable with EMC's Clariion line, updated with flash SSDs and thin provisioning last August, HDS' AMS arrays, updated last October, HP's EVA products, and NetApp's FAS 3000 range.
A refresh of the EVA line is expected in March with new 6440 and 6840 models.
Sun has introduced the 6540 256TB and drive mid-range system, effectively replacing the 6540, and a 6780 448TB and drive product that pushes its mid-range arrays to higher levels of performance and capacity.
The 6580 has eight 4Gbit/s Fibre Channel (FC) ports, 8GB of cache, up to 16 expansion trays per controller, SATA and FC drives (as before) and RAID 6 (as before) to protect against a double drive failure. The replaced 6540 offered RAID 0, 1, 3, 5 and 1+0 but not RAID 6. The 6140 already offers RAID 6.
The 6780 has 8 or 16GB of cache, 8 or 16 4Gbit/s FC ports and up to 28 expansion trays per controller. Like the 6580 it offers both SATA and FC hard drives and RAID 6. It provides, Sun says, twice the IOPS of the 6580 and four times its throughput.
Neither array offers either SAS disk drives or solid state drives, and nor do they offer thin provisioning, which Sun's 9900 enterprise arrays do. Both are managed with StorageTek's Common Array Manager software which offers volume expansion.
The 6580 has SPC-1 benchmark results and the 6780 SPC-2 throughput-oriented benchmark numbers. Sun says it offers the best SPC-2 performance of any system costing less than $250,000.
Both new boxes are available now, the 6580 controller unit for a list price of $59,995 and the 6780 controller for a list price of $89,995. ®
COMMENTS
RE: Twatt Bryant
"....One I don't think anyone really cares about reading." Well if you don't like reading them then I suggest you stick to reading Sun press releases, they'll probably be more to your liking. Well, for a while anyway, after that you'll have to find a new company to get all misty-eyed over.
Twatt Bryant
"PS: This is only 634 words"
lol, "only"?
Collate the "posts" you've made on El Reg over the past two years and it makes a good-sized novel. One I don't think anyone really cares about reading.
RE: AC Sunshiners
"....Let's see - "slowaris" - obviously you've not used Solaris in many many years (if at all)...." OK, apart from the old Sol 8 and 9 kit we still have, let's see now - evaluated Slowaris on Niagara against hp-ux 11i v3 on Integrity, and the Sun was slower (especially on a key Java benchmark); evaluated Slowaris x86 on hp blades against Red Hat and Windows 2k3, and both were faster than Slowaris and didn't have even a fraction as many issues; and I have recently completed a benchmark session of one of our Integrity Superdomes running a mix of hp-ux and Windows 2k8 partitions (for MS SQL) against a stack of Sun blades running Windows 2k8 and an M8000 running Slowaris 10 and Oracle - the Sun blades fell over almost daily, the M8000 couldn't keep up, and the whole Sun solution was more expensive and needed more monitoring and management than the hp solution. So, in my experience, the Slowaris moniker Sun earned by previous disappointing and expensive performance is still very valid.
"....You clearly have an inferiority complex when it comes to Sun because every time Sun is mentioned you go on the offensive...." Well, after years of having to suffer the continual bleating of the Sun sheeple going on about how wonderful Sun is it's only fair you get a measure in return. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. If it's Sun's kitchen you're in then I suggest you get out sooner rather than later.
"....So scuttle back under that HP rock and pretend that HP is actually used in the real world and doesn't make most of it's revenue from ink sales." Thanks, but I like the view out here in the real world. But I have to point out your very limited view from under your Sun Rock (haha, that's a symbolic Rock, seeing as Sun can't get a real one out of the door) meant you forgot the profit hp also makes on servers, storage and software, amongst other product ranges. In fact, seeing as Sun hasn't made a profit for ages, it's pretty safe to claim any hp product range is more profitable than the whole of Sun put together. Especially the printer and ink bizz. :P
"....I would say it will not take long for Sun to catch up to these storage "powers"....." So you admit Sun is playing catch-up, then? Of course, those "powers" aren't standing still either, they are also developing and innovating, and they have profits to fund their activities whilst Sun is rapidly running through it's reserves.
".....As the author implies, this is not a small feat. Admit it Matt, Sun may be achieving something here and even you will eventually have to take notice." The problem (for you, that is) is that Sun have failed as a server bizz, and the StorageTek bizz doesn't have the ability to stand on it's own feet inside Sun without the rest of Sun dragging it down. It is very obvious Sun is trying to transition to just being a software bizz, and that means StorageTek will be hived off as the only bit of sellable bizz to fund Ponytail's cloud daydreams. Amusingly, the only credible name I hear for a buyer is NetApp!
"....then writes 3000 word rants in full-on FUD overdrive...." Ah, you must be the Sunshiner that calculates the SPARC performance figures seeing as your counting is obviously a little weak, or maybe gross exaggeration is just endemic in Sunshinerville. My previous post was only 191 words (well, plus six for the title). I also can't help noticing you don't seem to be doing a good job of disproving any of my "FUD", or could that be because you can't?
(PS: This is only 634 words).

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