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As a leading provider of Enterprise storage solutions, CSS helps you optimize current resources, manage multivendor environments and evolve as open architectures allowing you to improve performance, efficiency and business continuity.  With products from leading storage vendors such as HP, Brocade, Qlogic, Cisco, and others, CSS can create a SAN that best meets your requirements.

HP StorageWorks is our featured solution based on technical excellence, price/performance, total cost of ownership, company direction, and long-term supportability.

The HP StorageWorks SAN provides the industry leading architecture to deploy, manage and scale today's networked storage enterprise environments. It delivers the physical connectivity that, when combined to the other elements of HP's solution, brings into reality the well established benefits of network storage: significantly reduced the Total Cost of Ownerships (TCO), increase asset utilization, and lower costs while increasing time to market and maintaining high returns on investment 100-500%

The HP StorageWorks SAN consists of two levels, physical and logical. At the physical level, it provides of an architecture of networked elements (edge switches, directors, core switches, HBA's, firmware, cables, transceivers etc.) designed to connect a heterogeneous computing environments to single and multiple shared storage systems. At the logical level, it consists the applications, management tools, virtualization technology and services built on the underlying infrastructure that provides the intelligence to manage the SAN and lower the total costs of ownerships.

It consists of two levels:

  • Physical level: architecture of networked elements (edge switches, directors, core switches, HBA's, firmware, cables, transceivers, etc.) designed to connect heterogeneous computing environments to single and multiple shared storage systems.
  • Logical level: the applications, management tools and services built on the underlying infrastructure, needed to manage the SAN and lower the total costs of ownership.

what's new

Three new SAN capabilities have been introduced:

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iSCSI bridging:

ability to provide enterprise-class storage resources to non-critical serves through the IP network. This is accomplished by supporting connectivity of the HP StorageWorks SR2122 iSCSI Storage Router with our switch product lines. SAN design rules to build such environments are provided in the new edition of the SAN Design Guide.

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SAN extension:

In addition to the current capabilities to support SAN extension in the context of DRM solutions, the HP StorageWorks SAN now support remote connectivity over MAN's and WAN's as a generic infrastructure capability. Please check the new edition of the SAN Design Guide for SAN rules and for information on the specific qualified devices

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Updated NAS/SAN integration rules:

New and updated NAS/SAN design rules covering integration of the latest NAS heads (e7000 and NAS 8000) with HP's latest fabric products. Customer will now be able to design architectures supporting fusion of NAS heads with general-purpose enterprise SANs.

features

StorageWorks SANs provide:

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Multi-Protocol Support:

HP StorageWorks is delivering the storage resources of the SAN to remote servers by bridging Fibre Channel to IP networks. With the new SR2122 iSCSI Storage Router and expanded FCIP and DWDM support, customers can utilize existing SAN storage resources to support non-mission critical, stranded, and low end servers with a minimum incremental investment and enhance the ability to remotely access centralized storage resources.

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Outstanding Flexibility:

Three interconnect product lines to deliver connectivity solutions that span the whole enterprise:

  • Entry Level Product Line: Low cost switch products and blades to satisfy the needs of application centric environments in medium to large organizations; or SAN adoption by small Enterprises
  • Infrastructure Product Line: Addresses the use of storage networks to consolidate departmental storage needs into a centrally managed corporate structure. The "Fabric Backbone".
  • High Availability Product Line: Addresses the unique needs of mission critical applications in terms of performance, availability, and non-disruptive 24x7 operation
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Scalable Topologies:

Well documented SAN architectures that scale in connectivity, performance and distance (LAN, MAN, WAN).

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Three approaches to quickly implement network designs that match customer requirements:

  • "Standard" Topologies: Four SAN topology designs (ring, meshed, cascaded, "Core-to-Edge" skinny and fat trees)
  • "Modified" Topologies: Rules allow for deviations within the standard topologies to meet specific requirements.
  • Custom "Rules Based" Topologies: Customized topologies based on qualified rules
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High Availability:

Architectures and products to match the availability needs of mission critical applications and environments, including Directors and Core switches, dual fabrics and multi-pathing software.

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Centralized Management:

StorageWorks SANs are fully integrated with HP OpenView Storage management tools and storage applications (EBS and DRM) for complete management solutions.

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Leading Edge Interoperability:

The most extensive support in the industry for the heterogeneous computing environment typical of corporate infrastructures. Support for Open storage configurations through SNIA's Open SAN Supported Solutions Forum and documented configurations.

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Technology Integration:

Robust storage infrastructures with seamless integration to other popular storage technologies, including NAS and iSCSI.

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Security:

Well-documented best practices and security features to minimize SAN exposure to security risks and for better protection of knowledge assets.

 
© 2002 Computer Systems Support, Inc.