Western Digital: Extensions to IntelliFlash N AFAs and Ultrastar Serv60+8 Hybrid Storage Servers

Western Digital Corporation (WDC) announced additions to its data center solutions portfolio, giving customers the flexibility to design modern infrastructures and extract value from data.

These solutions include the ActiveScale 5.3 object storage system, extensions to the IntelliFlash N Series family of all-flash arrays, and the Ultrastar Serv60+8 hybrid storage server platform. This portfolio provides the building blocks to deploy data center solutions for performance, efficiency and TCO while opening up opportunities to capture, preserve, access and transform data in ways that were not previously possible.

Driven by the volume, velocity and variety of data (video), from edge to core, data centers are undergoing change as organizations try to find ways to fuel growth while managing flat IT budgets. With new applications and use cases constantly emerging, driven by IoT, machine learning, AI and analytics, IT managers must design for the future.

Addressing these needs, the company’s offerings include:

• ActiveScale 5.3 object storage system
  The ActiveScale P100 and X100 systems represent the next-generation of object storage for petabyte-scale unstructured data growth. With ActiveScale 5.3 now supporting up to 19-nines of data durability, the system facilitates a ‘Data Forever’ architecture, allowing customers to economically store petabytes of data over multiple generations of storage with confidence. ActiveScale enhancements include Unified Data Access, a NFS interface for ingest and management of data in traditional file system format and for improving storage usage in environments with mixed file and object use cases. Hybrid cloud replication is new with built-in bucket-level replication from an on-premises ActiveScale system to an Amazon AWS bucket. It also features 20% higher storage density for new and existing scale-up or scale-out configurations, delivering better economics and improved data center space efficiency. Western Digital is also introducing Docker container support to select customers for more efficient workload deployment closer to the data. Available, the ActiveScale family starts at 864TB raw capacity and can scale to 63PB in a single namespace. Ideal use cases include data collaboration, digital repositories for media workflows, analytics, machine learning, IoT, and tape and legacy NAS consolidation in backup and archive workloads.

• IntelliFlash NVMe flash arrays
  Businesses need to be faster and smarter in order to transform, innovate and evolve to succeed in the markets they serve. Time-to-decision and action are critical. As one of the first unified, NVMe flash arrays to market, the IntelliFlash N Series is designed for real-time transactional applications, machine learning, artificial intelligence and deep analytics. Western Digital is introducing four IntelliFlash N-Series systems to deliver performance with economics for a wide range of enterprise workloads. Powered by IntelliFlash OS 3.9, the N Series portfolio can scale from 19TB to 1.3PB of solid-state storage. Version 3.9 leverages nearly a decade of innovation in flash data management to offer a full suite of capabilities including multiple protocols, data reduction, data protection and automated data healing. The IntelliFlash N Series systems will be available later this year.

Ultrastar Serv60+8

• Ultrastar Serv60+8 hybrid storage server platform
  With a track record of adoption into software-defined storage (SDS) and big data environments , the Ultrastar Data and Ultrastar Serv family of platforms are purpose-built for DIY, SDS and cost-sensitive environments. New to the family is the Ultrastar Serv60+8 high-capacity, performance-optimized storage server, representing a cornerstone in the company’s entry into the SDS server market. Designed for SDS archive, backup, media streaming, content repositories, and remote office and private-cloud environments, it features dual Xeon scalable processors combined with 60 bays for SSD, HDD or hybrid drive configurations, and a dedicated high-performance, 8-bay SSD section that can accept SAS, SATA or NVMe SSDs for added data acceleration. Its design leverages more than 60 years of storage expertise and patented technologies, including ArcticFlow and IsoVibe technologies, which help improve reliability, maintain predictable performance, and enhance energy efficiency. The Ultrastar Serv60+8 storage server platforms start at 144TB and are available, in multiple configurations, through the company’s network of distribution and channel partners.

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The ActiveScale 5.3, IntelliFlash N Series and Ultrastar Serv60+8 offerings are extensions of the firm’s data technology. The company’s differentiation and value-add comes from its ability to fine-tune and optimize an ecosystem of technologies, from silicon to systems, to deliver value and performance for customers. By expanding the scope of innovation to encompass software, processing, interconnect, storage, mechanical and manufacturing disciplines, this Symbiotics Design approach delivers purpose-built products that provide the performance, reliability, TCO and sustainability demanded by data-centric environments today and tomorrow.

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“Enterprises undergoing digital transformation are looking for improved efficiencies, and consolidating storage workloads onto fewer platforms, while continuing to meet performance, scalability and availability requirements. This is something CIOs are actively thinking about,” said Eric Burgener, research VP, storage, IDC. “With this announcement, Western Digital is offering a range of modernized infrastructure that support key new technologies like NVMe, hybrid cloud replication and software-defined storage. These solutions can cost-effectively meet the needs of enterprises and cloud providers alike for block, file and object storage-based workloads in primary and secondary storage environments.“

“In this rapidly changing, data-centric world, relentlessly driven by new technologies, environments, applications and use cases, IT managers must anticipate and implement solutions that enable and drive their future productivity and value creation capabilities,” said Phil Bullinger, SVP and GM, data center systems business unit, Western Digital. “With these new additions, expanding the breadth and depth of our portfolio, we are enabling our data center customers to build and scale their operations with the flexibility of complete systems for easy deployment, and scalable, storage server platforms for DIY SDS environments. These new capabilities and offerings further expand our commitment to reducing data center operating costs and delivering higher value to our customers.“

Resources:
Become enterprise channel partner: VARs are encouraged to apply for the company’s Enterprise Partner Program and gain access to a selection of resources to help build solutions that target specific markets and customer needs while growing business and maximizing profitability.
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