LeftHand Launches Entry-Level SAN

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- LeftHand Networks, an HP company, today announced an entry-level storage area network (SAN) solution that improves performance and reduces storage costs within virtualized server environments for midsize businesses.

The LeftHand SAS Starter SAN helps customers efficiently deploy their first virtualization projects by simplifying the process of creating, accessing and managing shared storage resources.

As customers deploy virtual server environments, they frequently encounter unforeseen system performance bottlenecks. To further complicate matters, server virtualization increases the number of required connections to a SAN. This increased system complexity makes it more difficult and costly to troubleshoot when bottlenecks do occur. The LeftHand SAS Starter SAN reduces costs and mitigates these performance issues by automatically balancing data volumes across all disk drives, network connections and processors.

The SAS Starter SAN includes management tools that provide replication, thin provisioning and snapshot capabilities. These capabilities help ensure data availability even as the environment becomes more complex. In addition, customers can purchase only the capacity they need, easily increasing both the capacity and performance of their system without experiencing any disruption. The SAS Starter SAN can scale to more than 80 network ports and 320 disk drives to accommodate business growth.

Customers are looking for cost-effective storage solutions that help them realize the promised efficiencies of virtualized server environments,” said Bill Chambers, vice president, LeftHand Networks, an HP company. “The entry-level SAS Starter SAN gives customers an affordable, high-performing option that allows them to start small and add capacity as their needs grow.”LeftHand Networks Inc.