New Version of Imation Nexsan E-Series Arrays

Imation Corp. introduced the Nexsan E-Series V storage array product line.

With performance enhancements and increased memory, these arrays represent the latest from an E-Series product line to increase storage efficiency, maximize uptime and boost storage ROI while delivering versatility and ease of use.

Balancing the need for dense and reliable storage with rising storage operation and management costs, E-Series V storage arrays enable organizations to deploy 240TB of capacity in 4U while consuming less than one-third the power in one-third of the rack space of typical arrays. Users can engage Nexsan AutoMAID disk management capabilities to reduce power consumption by up to 87%, reducing operating expenses and extending the overall life of the storage system.

The enhanced E-Series V is designed to help mid-sized organizations and enterprises manage increased storage demands created by next-generation IT projects and applications. Use cases include affordable enterprise FC and/or iSCSI SAN storage; DAS for big data bulk storage; and as a building block for the scalable back-end storage infrastructure of Nexsan NST unified hybrid storage and Nexsan Assureon secure archive storage solutions.

Administrators experience the E-Series V solution’s flexibility in many ways. Organizations deploying them are able to mix and match capacity-optimized HDD, performance-optimized HDD and SSD to accommodate applications based on performance or capacity needs. Further, all solutions are managed through a centralized console for a ‘single-pane-of-glass’ view that simplifies storage management.

Customers also benefit from a hardware platform built for reliability, featuring an anti-vibration design to eliminate disk vibrations, and Cool Drive Technology for better temperature control, limiting the risk of overheating. Redundant active components and Active Drawer Technology enable system service without downtime to boost availability of E-Series V solutions.

Reliable High-Density Storage – Turbocharged
E-Series V features an advanced controller design, including a dedicated hardware engine, or ‘turbocharger,’ that accelerates RAID parity generation and doubles the sequential write performance over the prior generation E-Series systems. E-Series V models with the turbocharged advanced controller will be sold as E-Series VT systems.

“With the new Nexsan E-Series storage array, Imation has married reliable, dense SAN storage with a cost-effective and easy-to-deploy solution,” said Eric Sheppard, research director, storage, IDC. “This combination, plus the boost in performance, provides a very robust solution for those midrange companies trying to balance between the must-have reliable storage they need and the growing storage and management costs they don’t want.”

In October, Imation launched the Nexsan NST6530 unified hybrid storage system, a solid-state optimized storage solution that supports NAS (NFS, CIFS, SMB, FTP) and SAN (iSCSI, FC) workloads in a single system. It features active/active controllers and FASTier caching technology integrated with E-Series V storage arrays and expansions, enabling organizations to handle huge volumes of unstructured and structured data while providing low latency access to select data sets that need a performance boost. Together, NST6530 and E-Series V provide the flexibility to scale-up to 5PB of capacity, non-disruptively and with no impact to performance.

The new E-Series V storage array and NST6530 unified hybrid storage solution were demonstrated at Supercomputing 2013.

“The current Nexsan E-Series array is a battle-tested, rock-solid storage platform used in a variety of primary and secondary storage solutions in media and entertainment, government, healthcare, HPC, financial, surveillance and service provider sectors,” said Mike Stolz, VP marketing and support, Imation’s Nexsan storage solutions. “The new next-generation E-Series V storage array delivers more performance, throughput, density, scale and value to stay ahead of the enormous data growth, demanding workloads, and resiliency requirements in these vertical markets. E-Series V is our best and most versatile storage array yet.”

Chesapeake Systems is a Baltimore-based firm focused on IT solutions for creative professionals’ demanding workflows, with clients ranging from international broadcasters to small business owners.

“The Nexsan E-Series is an easy choice for our customers because it is exceptionally reliable, simple to install and manage, and efficient to scale. The added speed and performance in the E-Series V will be attractive to our broadcast and media production customers, who will benefit from the ability to better handle multiple video streams and shorten backup windows,” said Nick Gold, director of business development, Chesapeake.

E-Series V is available in dense storage configurations:

• E60VT (60 drives in 4U, up to 240TB)
• E48VT (48 drives in 4U, up to 192TB)
• E18VT (18 drives in 2U, up to 72TB)