Oracle boosts Sun storage capabilities

Oracle has announced upgrades to its Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System product line, designed to reduce the cost of storage and improve system capacity.

The enhancements include integrated deduplication, inline compression, 4 and 8Gbit/sec Fibre Channel protocol support, multiple storage pools, and new 1 and 2TB SAS disk drives which could be combined to double the maximum capacity of the storage units to 576TB, said Oracle.

Data deduplication can typically reduce storage requirements by between 50 and 80 percent, depending on data type, while compression can multiply space savings, according to the firm.

The incorporation of and 4 and 8 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel protocol support means that the storage systems can be now be used as Storage Area Networks (SANs), Oracle said.

Mike Shapiro, vice president of Storage at Oracle said that the firm is committed to providing a complete, open and integrated storage portfolio that reduces costs and simplifies storage management without compromising on performance.

“The Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage product line delivers innovative technologies and breakthrough economics for modern datacentre requirements, such as private clouds, storage consolidation and data protection,” he said.

Tony Lock, programme director at Freeform Dynamics, welcomed the latest developments for the Sun Storage 7000 platform.

“The extension of its capacity and the addition of Fibre Channel will add to the potential usage cases of the systems,” he explained.

“The biggest challenge now will be for Oracle to convince potential customers of its long-term intentions for its storage solutions, many of which have very good pedigrees.”