openBench Labs Validates Nexsan SASBeast

Nexsan Corporation announced that openBench Labs, an independent provider of IT performance testing, has released a new lab report on the Nexsan SASBeast storage array.

The hands-on review outlines how the Nexsan system reduces capital expenses (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx). It also demonstrates how the Nexsan systems address the growing use of corporate applications in a Virtual Operating Environment (VOE), powered by platforms such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V.

"Nexsan provides a storage infrastructure that efficiently supports VOE host servers to deliver optimal performance," said Jack Fegreus, managing director, openBench Labs. "Additionally, the Nexsan SASBeast storage arrays are highly flexible, supporting a full hierarchy of SSD, SAS, and SATA disk drives, meeting the efficiency and budgetary needs of the midrange market."

Key findings from the lab test identify
the following benefits of the Nexsan SASBeast:

• Enhanced administrator productivity – SASBeast features an embedded Web-based utility that enables the management of multiple storage arrays from one interface, which can be integrated with the Microsoft Management Console. The systems’ Virtual Disk Service also provides a complete single-pane-of-glass storage management interface for comprehensive SAN configuration insight and task simplification.
• Maximized density and reliability with hierarchical storage – The SASBeast 4U chassis supports any mix of 42 SSD, SAS, and SATA drives mounted vertically – front-to-front and back-to-back – to cancel rotational vibrations, reduce head positioning errors, optimize thermal operations, and extend drive life.
• Maximized energy savings – Nexsan AutoMAID (Automatic Massive Array of Idle Disks) technology automates the placing of drives in a hierarchy of idle states to conserve energy, while maintaining near-instantaneous access to data.
• Maximized I/O performance – I/O throughput reached 1GB per second streaming 128KB reads and 128KB writes using a mix of SAS- and SATA-based RAID-5 volumes. When working with a SASBeast, vSphere 4.1 hypervisors transmit I/O requests exclusively to the SASBeast FC ports on the controller servicing a target volume, which boosted I/O throughput by 20% for VMs.

"Customers today are adopting virtualized infrastructure for the efficiency and optimization of resources it offers," said Victoria Grey, senior vice president of marketing for Nexsan. "The openBench Labs review underscores the value Nexsan delivers to these environments, specifically outlining the SASBeast’s ability to minimize management time while maximizing resource utilization. Anyone considering adopting VOE should read this report."

To download the openBench Labs review