NEC Expands, Updates HydraStor Storage Platform

Communication
and IT solutions specialist NEC upgraded its HydraStor HS3 (mini-Hydra) to
deliver 60 percent higher throughput with 45 percent lower power usage compared
with the previous mini-Hydra generation. The new HS3-310 targets small to
medium-size businesses and remote enterprise offices.

In
addition, NEC is introducing an enhancement for its OpenStorage Suite for
Symantec NetBackup, delivering from 15 percent to 40 percent higher data
throughput than standard CIFS or NFS protocols.

The
mini-Hydra is a single-node system that is compatible with the larger scale-out
grid-based HydraStor system, allowing a transition when capacity needs exceed
12TB. Once transitioned into a grid environment, HydraStor allows for global
deduplication and scalability, which helps prevent silos of deduped data and
efficiency loss through a single management system.

The
next-generation HydraStor HS3-310 maintains the same functionality of the
HydraStor product line, including inline deduplication and compression at 2.1TB
per hour for standard I/O, as well as erasure-coded data resiliency. In
addition, the company said HydraStor’s Distributed Resilient Data (DRD)
erasure-coding delivers enhanced data resiliency and faster data rebuild with
less capacity or processing overhead, compared with traditional RAID 5 or RAID
6. The mini-Hydra also enables expansion to a multinode HydraStor HS8-3000 grid
system starting with a single-node HS3-310.

"The
new mini-Hydra offers SMEs advanced enterprise-class functionality and
performance without locking customers into a physically bound system that won’t
grow with the organization," said John Webster, a senior partner with
analyst firm Evaluator Group. "The mini-Hydra’s full compatibility with
the multinode HydraStor grid system enables users to integrate remote offices,
as well as maximize investment protection with an upgrade path to a full grid
as data needs grow."

With
this release, NEC is also enhancing HydraStor’s OpenStorage Suite for Symantec
NetBackup with the introduction of Express I/O purpose-built optimized I/O
protocol. Express I/O further enhances HydraStor’s OpenStorage Suite, which
already includes Dynamic I/O for distributed front-end load balancing for
increased efficiency, as well as Optimized Copy services for leveraging HydraStor’s
WAN-optimized RepliGrid technology for copying backup images to DR sites.

"We
know our customers’ data needs are not static, and we work with them to
seamlessly meet those demands while working with existing storage
investments," said Gideon Senderov, director of advanced storage products
for NEC. "NEC continuously invests in its HydraStor product line and
continues to develop innovative advanced functionality to meet customers’
growing data needs."