LSI Ramps Up Engenio Storage System

LSI has rolled out a number of enhancements to its high-end Engenio 7900 storage solution. Along with support for solid state drives (SSD) and iSCSI host interfaces, the new DE6900 drive enclosure adds a significant bump in drive capacity. With room for up to 60 SATA drives, the new enclosure will help both the largest of data centers with escalating capacity needs as well as those that need to trim power, heat and space requirements.

Available to LSI's OEM customers, the upgrades to the Engenio 7900 address the changing nature of enterprise storage. LSI's SSD support enables an intermixing of multiple tiers of storage within a single enclosure, enabling the high speed SSD to share physical space with the slower but higher capacity SATA drives without overwhelming the unit. Likewise, the 1Gb/sec iSCSI host adapters open up the storage solution to a combination of Ethernet and Fiber Channel options.
Most significant, however, is the new capacity of the enclosures themselves. LSI's latest design supports up to sixty drives per 4U enclosure versus sixteen in a 3U box. This can represent a 60% reduction in the physical footprint of the storage solution. Along with saving the space, the high-density enclosure also lowers the number of power supplies and fans needed, which LSI suggests can reduce the energy and cooling requirements by 35%.  

While much of the hype around the "greening" of IT has diminished, the real benefits of reducing the power, cooling, and the footprint needed for storage in data centers has taken hold throughout the industry. LSI's elimination of the need for extra enclosures -- and therefore the extra power supplies and fans run in them --  is a compelling benefit for enterprises looking to thwart the steady increase in consumption within their architectures. Because LSI storage products are exclusively handled through OEM partners, however, customers will have to wait for their particular vendor to roll these updates into their own product lines.