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Utility Storage

3PAR Performs Well For Managed Health Care Associates

July 29, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

3PAR announced today that Managed Health Care Associates has saved 50% on storage CAPEX by consolidating onto a single, highly virtualized 3PAR InServ F-Class Storage Server.

With 3PAR, MHA has doubled storage performance and improved VMware server performance while the hyper-efficient design of the InServ F-Class has also lowered MHA’s OPEX, reducing datacenter power consumption by 30% and storage administration time by 80% as compared to MHA’s previous storage environment.

By consolidating onto 3PAR, MHA has gained the scalability to meet anticipated growth without compromising performance. With the move to utility storage and more specifically the InServ F-Class, MHA has seen a 100% performance increase in storage performance and also a dramatic improvement in VMware performance. MHA’s virtual machines (VMs) — all of which leverage 3PAR Utility Storage — run faster with 3PAR than they did with MHA’s traditional storage arrays. This has allowed MHA to better serve the needs of their member pharmacies, which utilize MHA’s services to assist in the purchase of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and for network access to major national and regional prescription drug plans.

Since deployment, the InServ F-Class has also saved MHA on OPEX by reducing the amount of storage administration time required by their current IT staff by approximately 80% — from several hours per day to only a few hours per month. Additional savings have come in the form of a 60K-BTU reduction in energy consumption over the past year as compared to MHA’s previous storage system — a 30% savings in cooling costs alone.

The InServ F-Class mid-range array has saved MHA a significant amount on storage footprint and up-front capacity costs — a savings of 50% over the purchase of storage from the other vendors they evaluated. A major reason for this savings is that, with 3PAR, MHA no longer has to overpurchase storage capacity because they are unable to predict their future storage needs. For example, when converting physical servers to virtual machines using VMware, MHA was previously forced to purchase more storage up front than was actually required for those VMs. The Thin Built In capabilities of the F-Class, combined with 3PAR Thin Provisioning software, have given MHA the ability to overallocate storage to their virtual servers, thus allowing MHA to reduce their of up-front capacity purchases. In addition, the high port connectivity of the InServ F-Class array has eliminated the need for MHA to invest in additional Fibre Channel switching equipment that would have been required with storage arrays purchased from another vendor.

MHA has also seen a reduction in storage footprint due to the native tiered-storage capabilities of the F-Class. MHA has configured its 3PAR array with both high-performance Fibre Channel drives for performance-intensive production workloads and more cost-efficient Nearline (SATA) drives for disaster recovery from remote 3PAR arrays. MHA’s lab management and testing environments as well as their VMware environment also take advantage of the more economical Nearline drives while other servers use the higher-performance Fibre Channel drives.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: 3PAR, inserv, inserv f-class, managed health care associates, mha, Utility Storage, virtualisation, virtualization, vmware

3PAR Announces Cloud-Agile Partner Program

July 21, 2009 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

3PAR announced today the 3PAR Cloud-Agile program, a new partnership initiative to promote the adoption of cloud computing and cloud-based services offered by leading providers with infrastructures powered by 3PAR Utility Storage. The 3PAR Cloud-Agile program gives partners the opportunity to promote differentiated virtual private array (VPA) and disaster recovery (DR) offerings under the respective names 3PAR Cloud-Agile: SECURED and 3PAR Cloud-Agile: ASSURED.

3PAR created the Cloud-Agile program in response to an increase in demand for enterprise IT delivered as a utility service and a corresponding uptake in 3PAR Utility Storage adoption among leading IT hosting providers. Seven of the world’s top 10 revenue-generating managed service providers as identified by the “Winter 2009 Managed Hosting Report” issued by Tier1 Research use 3PAR Utility Storage as the storage foundation for their cloud-based service offerings.

The Cloud-Agile program is designed to raise awareness for the cost and agility benefits of cloud computing services and encourage the development of a mutually beneficial, robust cloud computing ecosystem. Program participation is limited to leading hosting providers using 3PAR Utility Storage as a strategic element of their cloud-based service offerings.

3PAR Cloud-Agile program participants such as Attenda, DataPipe, Terremark, and Verizon Business say their utility storage infrastructures — built on 3PAR InServ® Storage Servers — have enabled them to distinguish themselves with an agility that is lacking from others in their market. These companies share a significant investment in 3PAR Utility Storage, which has provided a strategic advantage by enabling them to handle unpredictable growth, control costs, accelerate book-to-bill cycles, assure service levels, and efficiently deliver value-added services. For these companies, service request response times have been reduced to minutes versus days, weeks, or even months with 3PAR.

For 3PAR Cloud-Agile partners, 3PAR Utility Storage has also contributed to savings on facilities and infrastructure costs while significantly reducing storage administration time. This has meant improved time-to-revenue, lower storage total cost of ownership (TCO), and tighter alignment between costs and revenues. For example, in a survey of 3PAR’s cloud computing service provider customers, 69% of IT organizations estimated that, by using 3PAR Utility Storage to power their cloud computing services, they have saved 40% or more in total capacity as compared to traditional storage alternatives.

Under the terms of the program, participants receive expert technical training to enhance the quality of the cloud-based services that these providers are able to offer to end users. The program also offers a combination of lead sharing, sales training, and joint marketing to increase selling opportunities and grow awareness of the benefits of cloud computing. In addition, under the program, participating providers have the opportunity to offer enhanced services built on 3PAR Utility Storage under the names 3PAR Cloud-Agile: SECURED and 3PAR Cloud-Agile: ASSURED.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: 3PAR, 3par cloud-agile program, 3PAR Utility Storag, 3PAR Utility Storage, cloud-agile, cloud-agile program, partner, partnership, Utility Storage, virtualisation, virtualization

3PAR Introduces New InServ T-Class

September 3, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

3PAR (previous coverage) introduced yesterday the 3PAR InServ T400 and T800 Storage Servers, built on a third-generation 3PAR InSpire Architecture that features the 3PAR Gen3 ASIC with integrated fat-to-thin processing.

With the delivery of the new T-Class arrays, 3PAR has become the first storage vendor to incorporate efficient, silicon-based thin technologies into system hardware.

The 3PAR Gen3 ASICs within the T-Class arrays feature a Thin Built In design to increase capacity utilization while maintaining high service levels. This design incorporates detection of allocated but unused capacity (“zero-detection” capability) into the 3PAR Gen3 ASIC to offer a silicon-based mechanism for fat-to-thin volume conversions. These fat-to-thin volume conversions are intended to boost capacity utilization by removing allocated but unused space from traditional volumes. 3PAR is the first in the industry to commercially ship storage systems with fat-to-thin capability designed into the hardware architecture of its arrays.

The Thin Built In architecture of the T-Class arrays was designed to preserve service levels and prevent disruption to production workloads during migration of “fat” volumes from other storage platforms to new “thin” volumes on the InServ. When fat-to-thin volume conversions take place in specialized silicon, controller CPU and memory resources are not diverted away from application workloads. This averts the negative performance impact of a software-based fat-to-thin implementation.

InServ T-Class arrays featuring the 3PAR Gen3 ASIC with the Thin Built In design are available today. 3PAR is developing additional software functionality to make fat-to-thin volume conversions, which are not currently supported in software, possible on the T-Class arrays with the next release of the 3PAR InForm Operating System.

3PAR

Filed Under: News Tagged With: 3PAR, 3PAR Gen3 ASIC, 3PAR InServ, 3PAR InServ T400, 3PAR InServ T800, 3PAR InSpire Architecture, 3PARdata, Storage Servers, Utility Storage, virtualisation, virtualization

Demand Media Picks 3PAR for Scaling Utility Storage

August 19, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

3PAR, provider of utility storage, announced today that Demand Media has chosen 3PAR Utility Storage to support its rapidly growing social media business. (see our previous coverage on 3PAR)

Demand Media uses its network of vertically-oriented web properties to connect content creators and large audiences with advertisers. To improve infrastructure agility, storage scalability, and capacity utilization over the data lifecycle, the social media company has implemented multiple 3PAR InServ Storage Servers in addition to 3PAR Thin Provisioning and 3PAR Dynamic Optimization software. Demand Media has also chosen to deploy an entire virtual datacenter based on the 3cV blueprint, which combines 3PAR Utility Storage with products from HP and VMware to create a complete utility computing environment.

Due to the rapid expansion of its business, Demand Media found that storage scalability and flexible, easy database and storage management were becoming critical requirements. To keep up with growth, Demand Media determined that it needed to enhance its server and storage infrastructure. The social media company promptly sought out a highly-virtualized server and storage platform that would enable greater flexibility and scalability than their previous infrastructure. They ultimately decided to implement 3PAR Utility Storage and a complete virtual datacenter based on the 3cV blueprint. “3cV” stands for the combination of the 3PAR InServ Storage Server, HP BladeSystem c-Class, and VMware Infrastructure.

To support their virtual datacenter, Demand Media chose to deploy the 3PAR InServ S800 Storage Server with 188 terabytes of storage and two 3PAR InServ E200 Storage Servers with 36 terabytes of storage. Demand Media’s 3PAR deployment also utilizes several 3PAR software products including 3PAR Thin Provisioning, 3PAR Dynamic Optimization, 3PAR Virtual Copy, and 3PAR System Reporter.

3PAR

Filed Under: News Tagged With: 3PAR, 3PAR Dynamic Optimization, 3PAR InServ Storage Servers, 3PAR Thin Provisioning, 3PARdata, Demand Media, HP, scaling, storage, Utility Storage, virtualisation, virtualization, vmware

3PAR Introduces New Incentive Program V-TIP

July 28, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

3PAR announced today its Virtual Technology Incentive Program (V-TIP) which is designed to combine the benefits of 3PAR Utility Storage with financial incentives offered by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) for datacenter storage virtualization and thin provisioning projects.

The financial incentives offered to 3PAR customers by PG&E reward 3PAR customers for deploying “energy-smart storage”. PG&E rebates are based on the amount of energy savings achieved by datacenters through storage virtualization and the use of 3PAR Thin Provisioning and other thin technologies from 3PAR. To qualify for these financial incentives, Northern and Central California PG&E customers must apply for and be accepted into the rebate program prior to deploying a new 3PAR-based storage implementation.

Financial incentives from PG&E are just a part of the energy and environmental benefits from 3PAR Utility Storage. According to a Wikibon Energy Lab case study, customers replacing older storage technologies with next-generation 3PAR InServ arrays have saved as much as 90%* on annual energy costs related to powering and cooling their storage systems.

[Source: MarketWatch]

Filed Under: News, Partnerships, Videos Tagged With: 3PAR, 3PAR Utility Storage, 3PAR V-TIP, incentive program, Pacific Gas and Electric, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, PG&E, Utility Storage, V-TIP, virtualisation, virtualization

3PAR Launches Thin Copy Desktop for VMware VDI

July 21, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

3PAR announced today 3PAR Thin Copy Desktop for VMware VDI, an integrated virtual desktop provisioning and management solution for VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

3PAR Thin Copy Desktop for VMware VDI is designed to let its customers automatically provision hundreds of high-performance virtual desktops that consume only a fraction of the bandwidth and storage capacity required with traditional storage.

3PAR says its Utility Storage enhances the benefits of implementing VDI on a traditional SAN by providing additional performance, simplified provisioning, and rapid recovery while reducing required capacity—benefits that are ideal for these next-generation virtualized environments.

3PAR Thin Copy Desktop for VMware VDI builds on 3PAR Virtual Copy to create a resilient utility computing infrastructure that maximizes the benefit of centralized desktop management. 3PAR Thin Copy Desktop offers high performance desktop booting, automated provisioning, and rapid desktop recovery while consuming 90% less capacity for desktop images.

3PAR also announced today enhancements to 3PAR Virtual Copy to support up to 128 read/writable snapshots per base volume and the ability to promote a child Virtual Copy snapshot to any of its read/writable parent snapshots. Up to 500 read-only snapshots per base volume also remain supported with these enhancements.

3PAR Thin Copy Desktop for VMware VDI comes with 3PAR Virtual Copy at no extra charge.

3PAR

Filed Under: News Tagged With: 3PAR, 3PAR Thin Copy Desktop for VMware VDI, 3PAR Utility Storage, 3PAR Virtual Copy, 3PAR VMware VDI, desktop virtualization, Utility Storage, VDI, virtual desktop, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, virtualisation, virtualization, vmware, VMware VDI, VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

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