4th-Gen of NEC Hydrastor: HS8-4000

NEC Corporation of America announced its fourth generation HYDRAstor HS8-4000.

The HS8-4000 expands the maximum scalability of the HYDRAstor grid storage platform to greater than 900TB/hr (250,000MB/s) of throughput and greater than 100PB of effective capacity with inline global deduplication across a single scale-out system, further extending HYDRAstor as a fast deduplication storage system.

HYDRAstor is NEC’s highly scalable distributed grid storage platform, built to modernize storage infrastructure to support long-term data retention. It has been architected to maximize capacity optimization and modular scalability, without the complexity and inherent limitations of legacy storage solutions such as expensive inefficient primary storage, limited scale-up NAS, virtual or physical tape, or specialized single-purpose backup or archive appliances.

With this release, HYDRAstor HS8-4000 introduces a new type of node, the Hybrid Node, which combines the functionality of both an accelerator node and a storage node by adding both performance and capacity to a HYDRAstor grid system. The HS8-4000 Hybrid Nodes deliver 80% higher performance than previous-generation HS8-3000 Accelerator Nodes, with up to 5.6 TB/hr (1,550MB/s) per hybrid node. In addition, the HS8-4000 Hybrid Nodes deliver four times the capacity of previous-generation HS8-3000 Storage Nodes, with 48TB of raw capacity per hybrid node. It also introduces new storage nodes, which add only capacity to a HYDRAstor grid system at a lower cost than hybrid nodes. The HS8-4000 Storage Nodes deliver the same capacity as hybrid nodes, with 48TB per node or four times the capacity of HS8-3000 Storage Nodes.

Fourth generation HS8-4000 delivers:

• A lower footprint with new hybrid nodes versus accelerator nodes
• 4.9TB/hr of throughput (standard) per hybrid node
• 5.6TB/hr of throughput (OST Express I/O) per hybrid node
• 48TB of raw capacity per hybrid node or storage node
• 625TB of effective capacity per hybrid node or storage node
• Greater than 900TB/hr aggregate throughput in a single 165-node system
• Greater than 100PB effective capacity in a single 165-node system

"Enterprise customers continue to demand greater scalability, lower footprint, and lower cost to keep up with data growth," said Dave Reinsel, group VP, IDC. "Long-term data represents a large percentage of enterprise user data, requiring massive scalability to support preserving and protecting that data. NEC’s HYDRAstor HS8-4000 grid storage system leverages a scale-out architecture to deliver significant throughput and capacity and is designed to meet extreme customer scalability requirements over time."

With the fourth generation HYDRAstor, NEC is also introducing a new version of the single-node Mini-HYDRA, the HS3-410. It increases the performance of previous generation HS3-310 by 50% to 3.2TB/hr for standard I/O or 3.5TB/hr for OST Express I/O, and doubles the capacity up to 24TB. The HS3-410 is available in several models with capacity licensing, including HS3-410-8 with 8TB, HS3-410-16 with 16TB, or HS3-410-24 with 24TB of raw capacity.

"The fourth generation HS8-4000 represents a significant leap forward with HYDRAstor’s scale-out grid technology, nearly tripling the aggregate throughput and quadrupling the aggregate capacity of a single HYDRAstor system," said Gideon Senderov, director, advanced storage, NEC. "These higher density and scale enhancements further extend HYDRAstor’s leading position as the fastest deduplication storage system, continuing to deliver greater value and investment protection at a lower cost to our customers."

HYDRAstor Generation 4 HS8-4000 and HS3-410 will be available on April 1, 2013. The HS8-4000 Hybrid Node list pricing ranges from $85,000 for a 12TB capped single Hybrid Node to $190,000 per fully populated Hybrid Node. The HS3-410 Mini-HYDRA list price ranges from $35,000 for the HS3-410-8 to $75,000 for the HS3-410-24.