Hitachi Universal Storage Platform V (USP-V)

Reaching previously unattainable levels of consolidation, the Hitachi Universal Storage Platform™ V has redefined the storage industry. It represents the world’s first implementation of a large scale, enterprise-class virtualization layer combined with thin provisioning software. That means the virtualization of internal and external heterogeneous storage into one pool has finally been achieved. Customers can obtain the consolidation benefits of external storage virtualization with the efficiencies, power and cooling advantages of thin provisioning in one integrated solution.

Everyone from mid-sized growing companies to the largest global organizations can now benefit from the industry’s highest performing and most scalable storage solution. It is backed by a set of storage and data services that include thin provisioning with Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning software, application-centric storage management and logical partitioning, as well as simplified, unified data replication across heterogeneous storage systems.

An integral component of the Hitachi Services Oriented Storage Solutions architecture, the Hitachi Universal Storage Platform V provides the foundation for matching application requirements to different classes of storage. The Hitachi Universal Storage Platform V packages and delivers critical services such as:

• Virtualization of storage from Hitachi and other vendors into one pool
• Thin provisioning through Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning for non-disruptive volume expansion
• Security services, business continuity services and content management services
• I/O load balancing to improve application performance
• Non-disruptive dynamic data migration from Hitachi and other storage systems

Services Oriented Storage Solutions enables IT organizations to present business clients with a menu of storage attributes (such as performance, availability, cost and security) and charge for those services based on the client’ s selection. Services Oriented Storage Solutions can lower costs, extend lifetime value and simplify management activities. The Hitachi Universal Storage Platform V enables you to deploy applications within a new framework, fully leverage-and add value to-current investments and more closely align IT with business objectives.

 

Consolidate Storage Resources, Simplify Storage Management

 

Networked storage solutions from Hitachi Data Systems can help you consolidate, reduce management complexity, and cut costs. The Universal Storage Platform lets you create centralized storage pools that can be consistently managed and shared across applications and servers. Consolidating and aggregating storage resources in this way helps you reduce environmental costs while improving application availability and performance. Additionally, coupling consolidated, networked storage with robust Hitachi Storage Management and HiCommand^® Suite software greatly improves the amount of storage administrators can manage.

Logically Partition Storage Resources

 

Hitachi extends its innovative port virtualization technology to entire platforms. With Hitachi Virtual Storage Machine technology, you can logically partition the Universal Storage Platform to create as many as 32 Virtual Storage Machines (Universal Storage Platform V) and as many as 8 Virtual Storage Machines (Universal Storage Platform VM)- each with dedicated internal and external capacity, cache, and ports, as shown in Figure 2. Virtual Storage Machines allow you to apply storage policies to specific applications, matching business requirements for performance, capacity, and availability to designated storage resources. Because each Virtual Storage Machine has its own serial number, you can associate specific business applications with selected departments and business units, and then charge back accordingly. These unique capabilities allow you to create a utility model to deliver “metered” storage resources to select business entities. You can delegate management of Virtual Storage Machines to local administrators or manage them centrally, whichever you prefer.

 
Support Disaster Recovery & Up-time Requirements

By maintaining up-to-date copies of data in geographically dispersed locations, Universal Storage Platform satisfies the most demanding disaster recovery and uptime requirements.