On April 16, Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation announced network attached storage (NAS) connectivity powered by the Network Appliance, Inc. NetApp® V-Series storage virtualization technology. The use of the technology in high-performance  ETERNUS®4000 and ETERNUS®8000 storage systems enables customers to consolidate existing fragmented file servers onto a single platform. NAS connectivity lowers the overall total cost of ownership (TCO) and allows customers to achieve a higher return on investment (ROI) through scalability and consolidation on the ETERNUS platform. ETERNUS customers can simplify storage management, reduce operating costs, and reduce under-utilized storage capacity by unifying their SAN and NAS storage networking infrastructures under a common architecture by virtualizing storage at the file level on block-based ETERNUS storage disk arrays.
The Fujitsu ETERNUS storage solution offers unparalleled price/performance value for enterprise and mid-range environments with advanced data security and high-availability features, including disk data encryption for the maximum protection of sensitive information and a fully redundant nodal mesh architecture for high availability. ETERNUS offers MAID (Massive Arrays of Inactive Disks) technology for reduced power consumption and extended life. In addition, ETERNUS8000 delivers the world’s largest storage capacity with 1.38 petabytes of storage space. With NAS connectivity, customers can now utilize Fujitsu ETERNUS storage systems for file-intensive storage access requirements with unparalleled performance and reliability.
All the details about this marriage of technologies can be found in the press release.

Earlier this month, Fujitsu Limited announced that Nagoya University Hospital in Japan has deployed Fujitsu’s PRIMEQUEST mission-critical IA server for its new integrated hospital information system. The system is a complete platform for the entire hospital services, including the electronic medical record system and other systems such as examination systems in each department. The new system provided by Fujitsu consists of a PRIMEQUEST server, PRIMERGY BX620 S3 blade servers, and ETERNUS storage systems. Integrating PC servers onto the PRIMEQUEST server enables the time required to access electronic medical records to be reduced to approximately one-third the time that was previously needed. The new system has been operating since January 2007. 

Nagoya University Hospital, one of the core medical institutions in central Japan, sees approximately 500,000 outpatients per year and has 29 departments and 1,035 beds. The hospital has been an early-adopter of health information technology (HIT), such as implementing an electronic medical record system in 2002. 

To read more about this critical integration, please open the press release here. 

Data storage systems are constantly becoming larger and more complicated. As a result, storage management has become a burden on system administrators and has created an urgent need for simplification. 

The Fujitsu TRIOLE™ system infrastructure vision promotes system virtualization, automation and integration as a means to achieving such business infrastructure improvements. Servers, networks and storage are virtualized and autonomously managed using system management software centered on the Fujitsu Systemwalker Resource Coordinator. This integration of product and function not only reduces the burden on administrators but also realizes a high level of systems management. The ETERNUS VS900 Model 200 (VS900) virtualization switch provides virtualization functions for such storage domains. 

Storage virtualization using VS900 enables the flexible assignment of storage space, as required, for the execution of applications and middleware. For instance, VS900 makes it possible to collect all unused disk space and build it into a large virtual disk. This ensures that storage is utilized more efficiently. When, due to increases in stored data, the virtual disk becomes ‘full’ it is easy to enlarge the available space as it has no “physical” limit. 

To read the entire white paper on this important topic, go to the ETERNUS white paper page here. There you’ll also find white papers on the Fujitsu role in the Microsoft® SQL Server™ Storage Solution Review Program (also known as the “Always On” program) and the ETERNUS solution. 

In a recently posted white paper entitled “Decrypting Enterprise Storage Security”, Greg Schulz of the StorageIO Group discusses the options for encrypting and securing enterprise data and storage. He discusses in detail the method of employing encryption and tiered data security which allows multiple levels of security, depending upon the criticality and sensitivity of the data. The more critical the data, the more layers of security are applied.
Schulz specifically cites the Fujitsu ETERNUS architecture for its tiered data security capabilities. “Tiered data protection and security strategies can be deployed leveraging storage system-based encryption for data at rest combined with appliance-based encryption to protect data in-flight for local and remote mirror, replications and electronic tape vaulting. The Fujitsu ETERNUS with storage system-based encryption protects data with encryption on an individual LUN (logical unit number) or using volume granularity enabling the user to avoid treating all data the same. In other words, the ETERNUS enables the alignment of the appropriate level of security and encryption to counter applicable threat risks to the data.”
To read the entire article on this important subject, go to the white paper link here.
 

In tests performed in October, Fujitsu achieved the new world record on SPC Benchmark-2™ with the ETERNUS4000 Model 500 storage system. The SPC Benchmark-2 is the Storage Performance Council’s latest industry storage benchmark. The Storage Performance Council (SPC) is a nonprofit institute in which major storage vendors participate, dedicated to the evaluation of storage system performance.

SPC Benchmark-2 is designed to show the aggregate performance of the storage subsystems for large-sized, sequential data access environments, and consist of three distinct profiles:

• Large file processing
• Large database queries
• Video on Demand.

The Executive Summary and Full Disclosure Report for the ETERNUS4000 Model 500 SPC Benchmark-2 test are available here.

The Always On White Paper for Fujitsu ETERNUS Storage System recently posted on the Fujitsu white paper website “describes a very efficient database environment that provides the combined benefits and advantages of the Microsoft SQL Server and Fujitsu ETERNUS storage systems.”
The paper goes on to say “today, IT systems and their stable operation are becoming more and more critical to success of customer’s businesses. Among the IT technologies, successful deployment and sustained availability of the database and data on storage is one of the most important tasks for IT managers. In this white paper, we discuss best practices of architecting our ETERNUS storage systems in SQL Server environments…”
A second ETERNUS-related white paper now available provides an Analysis of Fujitsu ETERNUS4000 Models 80, 100, 300, and 500. The paper was written by Evaluator Group, and contains a detailed unbiased evaluation of the ETERNUS 4000 line of storage systems.
To read both of the new white papers, as well as a number of other white papers about related topics, be sure to go to the ETERNUS Storage white paper site.

On September 26, Fujitsu Computer Systems announced the 4th generation ETERNUS Storage Systems. The new ETERNUS4000 and ETERNUS8000 are both equipped with end-to-end 4Gbps fibre channel interface with state of the art technologies, such as disk data encryption for security and MAID capability for energy conservation.

ETERNUS4000 is a Mid Range modular disk array. Model100 is the entry model for small configurations, while Model300 and Model500 have superior scalability in terms of both capacity and performance to cover the wide range of customer requirements in today’s IT environment.

ETERNUS8000 is the Enterprise class disk array. Model900/1100 are designed and priced to bridge the gap that exists today between High End monolithic disk arrays and Mid Range disk arrays, whereas the top-of-the-line Model2100 provides the world’s largest capacity of 1.38PB with 2,760 disk drives. 

Using ETERNUS SF storage management software in combination with these ETERNUS storage systems ensures business continuity and low TCO by providing online disk-to-disk backup/restore as well as ease of storage management. 

For additional information about the new ETERNUS Storage Systems, Storage Virtualization, and Storage Management software, go to http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/www/products_storage.shtml?products/storage/fujitsu/index 

The growth in data storage continues unabated, and the trend isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon. In addition to their tremendous growth, today’s data and information systems are increasingly more complex and diverse.

Information systems occupy a critically important position in business, and more than ever demand total and secure management to ensure business continuity and data integrity. ETERNUS™ SF — in collaboration with ETERNUS storage systems — fully supports continuity of your business; ensuring enhanced manageability, 24 x 7 continuous business operation, data integrity and dependable disaster recovery solutions.

The combination of ETERNUS SF software and ETERNUS storage systems lets you create a seamless data management system. Whether you’re concerned with resource management, backup and archiving, or data replication, the ETERNUS suite will make the job a breeze, and let you concentrate on the other critical aspects of your job.

For more information about the ETERNUS SF and ETERNUS storage systems, go here.