Affordable Storage for Big Data
Advances in compute technology and scientific methods have ignited a data explosion in scientific research. To manage this information, you need scalable, flexible and cost-effective storage and data management solutions, as well as fast access to your data. Apple storage solutions give you all of this — within budget and with the cross-platform flexibility you require.
Building Blocks for a Complete Storage Solution
For environments ranging from small departments to large lab installations, you can build a low-cost, high-capacity storage solution combining high-performance hardware and software from Apple. The Promise RAID storage unit works seamlessly with the Xserve file server to provide an affordable alternative to traditional NAS devices. Offering the compatibility of open standards and Apple’s legendary manageability, this high-performance, high-capacity solution allows Mac, Windows and Linux clients to share terabytes of information — with no per-user licensing fees.
| Apple Storage Solution | |
|---|---|
| File servers | Xserve with 8-core Xeon processing |
| Clients | Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iMac |
| Software | Mac OS X Server operating system Xsan 2, Storage Area Networking software Apple Remote Desktop 3 |
| Support | AppleCare Premium Support and Service AppleCare Xsan support Mac OS X Server software support |
| Qualifed Third-Party Vendors | |
| Storage device | Promise RAID |
| Fibre Channel Switch | QLogic, Brocade, Emulex, Cisco, and McData |
| Data Management | Xsan, ADIC, and VERITAS |
| Backup | BakBone, Attempo, and BRU |
High-Performance Storage Networking
A Storage Area Network (SAN) allows you to pool data across multiple RAID devices for better performance while each client can access this centralized data as if connected directly to it. Xsan 2 from Apple is a Storage Area Networking application that let’s multiple computers concurrently access terabytes, even petabytes, of storage on Xserve RAID over high-speed Fibre Channel. The advantages of a SAN solution include:
- Dynamic scalability
- High-volume utilization
- High-fault tolerance
- Faster data access and efficient sharing with high-speed Fibre Channel
Storage Success Stories
University of Pittsburgh
“For other storage solutions, I was looking at weeks of training for my IT people. They didn’t have to go through any training for Xsan. They opened the program and started fiddling with a few things and were able to put the whole storage system together.”
— Michael Barmada, Ph.D., Department of Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh
McGill University
“The ease of getting an Apple storage system up and running is just unbelievable. I find that certain types of companies really try to make it a mystery. By going with Apple, there’s no mystery, everything’s there.”
— Jackie Vogel, Ph.D., McGill University