Storage
As every organisation produces increasing volumes of electronic data, managing storage for performance, integrity and scalability has become a significant challenge. Our expertise in the design, development and implementation of mid-to-high end data storage solutions is helping organisations of all types and scale to get the best performance and reliability from their storage space.
Over the last few years, the volume of data storage has increased dramatically while the cost of purchasing storage hardware continues to decline. We are an accredited specialist for storage products provided by Hewlett-Packard and have a range of storage options to suit all requirements:
Direct-attached Storage (DAS)
Direct-attached storage (DAS) refers to a digital storage system directly attached to a server or workstation. This means that there is no ability to share data or unused resources with other servers, but it is a useful entry-level option to solving data storage issues.
Network-attached Storage (NAS)
Network-attached storage (NAS) is shared storage over a TCP/IP network and is regarded as a cost-effective option with advantages over and above the entry-level DAS. NAS can be easily deployed in mixed operating system environments, sharing the same data between the different architectures. Our NAS portfolio provides small business, departmental and enterprise class storage.
Storage Area Networks (SAN)
Storage Area Networks (SANs) provide the highest levels of flexibility in storage management and configuration. They enable disk storage capacity to be consolidated into a centrally managed high performance device and share resources with many servers across an organisation. Storage can be dynamically allocated to any server on demand and extra capacity may be added as required to the shared resource. In common with NAS solutions, SAN can be easily deployed in mixed UNIX operating system environments. Our SAN portfolio provides entry-level, mid-range and enterprise class storage.
Depending on individual client requirements, we can combine NAS and SAN devices to provide the most effective solutions - always bearing in mind the need for simplified network management, high levels of efficiency and maximum return on investment.
Storage Library Systems
To complete our storage offering, we deploy HP StorageWorks tape storage library systems to provide backup solutions for all sizes and types of organisation. An essential part of any business continuity strategy, these solutions are highly reliable and deliver fast restore capabilities in the event of a data access problem.
Our comprehensive storage solutions offer the following benefits:
- Almost unlimited capacity - connect from a few gigabytes to multiple terabytes to one or more servers, with management through a common interface
- Greater flexibility - NAS and SAN can be deployed in a variety of topologies which can be easily modified and expanded
- Reduced downtime - full redundancy, online capacity expansion, hot pluggable components and clustering increases availability of server and application infrastructure
- Increased bandwidth - fibre channel SAN provides high speed and easily integrates with other communications technologies to cover required distances. NAS can utilise industry standard high performance networking for serving data to workgroup or farm systems
- Multi-vendor support - storage solutions can be easily used in other vendors’ server environments
- Centralised back-up and restore - SAN capability allows multiple servers to be backed up to one or more tape libraries. This provides hundreds of terabytes of centralised capacity without the need for data to be carried over a general network
Contact us for a no-obligation discussion on how to best meet your current and future data storage challenges. We offer a free half day IT Health Check from one of our experienced consultants.