Fast, Reliable, Low-Cost Storage for SQL Server Storage with Emprise™ 5000

Many organizations today depend on Microsoft® SQL Server®-based applications for successful day-to-day operations. Insufficient performance or loss of access to SQL Server data can have serious consequences—from the inability to conduct business transactions or effectively analyze data to not being able to meet the needs of customers or citizens.

Deploying this critical application is typically associated with a storage area network (SAN), but there are advantages to using direct-attached storage (DAS) instead. DAS is less expensive, easier to deploy, and easier to use. It also can provide better performance by eliminating I/O contention with other applications.

Emprise 5000 with Microsoft SQL Server

Xiotech's Emprise™ 5000 system, built on patented Intelligent Storage Element (ISE™) technology, provides an easy-to-use storage foundation for your SQL Server environment.

The implementation can be as simple as one Emprise 5000 system connected directly to a single application server. If you need more capacity or performance, simply add Emprise 5000 systems. You can connect multiple systems directly, depending on the number of ports available on the server. Otherwise, you can connect the Emprise 5000 systems to the server(s) via a fabric switch.

Regardless of the size of your organization or SQL Server utilization, Emprise 5000 can scale to meet your needs. At the same time, it delivers fast performance and high availability for your SQL Server application and data, along with a very low total cost of ownership (TCO).

Fast Performance

Emprise 5000 is architected to maximize performance—for both structured and unstructured SQL Server data. Unlike SAN systems, Emprise 5000 eliminates storage controllers on the front end and switches on the back—and the bottlenecks that go along with them.

Because Emprise 5000 uses DataPacs rather than individual disk drives, each system provides the processing power of 20 to 40 disk drives in just 3U of rack space. DataPacs are available in a variety of configurations to meet your specific SQL Server storage needs.

And performance scales linearly along with capacity. As you add Emprise 5000 systems you increase performance (IOPS, MBps, Gbps) by 2x, 5x, 10x, and more.

Maximum Availability

With Emprise 5000, you have fast, reliable access to your SQL Server data whenever you need it. The ISE technology on which Emprise 5000 is built delivers unmatched reliability—from its dual Managed Reliability Controllers to improved vibration and cooling. Its sealed DataPacs also eliminate the need for you to ever touch another disk drive. Preventive capabilities eliminate most disk failures, and self-healing technology fixes disks that do fail, in place, with no downtime. Thanks to this tremendous reliability, Xiotech provides an industry-exclusive five-year hardware warranty with each Emprise 5000 system.

To improve availability further, you can implement dual paths between the application server and Emprise 5000 system and use Microsoft Multipath I/O (MPIO) for automatic path failover. Windows Server® 2008 includes a native MPIO driver, and Xiotech offers a driver for use with Windows Server 2003. Deploying multiple servers along with SQL Server clustering provides yet another layer of resilience. It eliminates the server as a single point of failure—further enhancing availability of your SQL Server application and data.

Lowest Total Cost of Ownership

Like most DAS systems, Emprise 5000 is less expensive to deploy and easier to maintain than a SAN. Unlike typical storage systems, however, Emprise 5000 enables you to use 100 percent of available capacity. And its fast performance—validated by the SPC as leading the industry for the price—does not go down as disk utilization increases. Thus, you can meet your capacity and performance requirements with less disk—dramatically lowering your capital costs.

Emprise 5000 also lowers operational costs with fast deployment, easy management, and efficient use of space and power. Simply connect Emprise 5000 to your network and power; then configure storage easily using the browser-based interface. It takes just minutes from the time you rack the system until it is ready for SQL Server data. This makes SQL Server and Emprise 5000 a perfect fit, not only for production, but for development and remote locations as well. And the Emprise 5000 system’s five-year warranty can save you thousands of dollars over other systems, which generally provide no more than three years of coverage before hefty maintenance fees kick in.

Contact Xiotech today to learn how Emprise 5000 can give you the best performance and reliability—with the lowest TCO—for your SQL Server storage.

Highlights

  • Lowest TCO in the industry:
    • 100% usable capacity
    • No drop in performance as capacity utilization increases
    • Industry-leading performance for the price, verified by the Storage Performance Council (SPC)1
    • Low operating expenses
    • Five-year hardware warranty
  • Fast performance:
    • No I/O contention with other applications
    • No bottlenecks from storage controllers or back-end switches
    • Linear performance scale
    • Dense processing power
    • High-performance storage tiers
  • Maximum availability:
    • No disks to replace
    • Self-healing storage technology
    • Fewer components to fail and easier maintenance
    • Support for MPIO and clustering

1Best protected disk array price/performance for SPC-1 I/Os per Second (IOPS); industry-leading price/performance for SPC-2 Megabytes per Second (MBps)—composite mirroring and large file mirroring—as of May 12, 2008. Audited reports are available at: www.storageperformance.org/results/benchmark_results_spc1#a00064 and www.storageperformance.org/results/benchmark_results_spc2#b00031.