X-IO introduces iglu family of feature-rich storage arrays  

X-IO Technologies has launched iglu, a new portfolio of fully featured storage systems that provides simplified management and can adapt between SAN and software-defined storage (SDS) requirements. The iglu blaze, X-IO’s first offering in the iglu family, integrates a full suite of data services and storage virtualisation features such as application-integrated snapshots and efficient replication, coupled with the long-term reliability, performance and simplicity of the proven Intelligent Systems Element (ISE) hardware.

Mark Peters, practice director and senior analyst at the Enterprise Systems Group, said, “According to recent ESG research, there is a large - and growing - number of organisations that are either about to deploy or are actively considering some kind of software-defined storage (SDS). Of course many IT professionals often have understandable concerns about the risks of deploying emerging technologies in their enterprise environments, not just because of the “new-ness” factor but also because of wanting their IT decisions and investments to pay dividends for many years, even in dynamic operating environments. The long lifespan and adaptability of such products as X-IO’s new iglu architecture can help address such concerns by allowing organisations to make the switch to SDS seamlessly and dynamically as and when needed anytime within iglu’s extended life-cycle.”

iglu blaze: adaptive, balanced and simple storage
With its modular SAN design, the iglu blaze enables customers to deploy a range of all-flash, hybrid or hard disk performance options from a single scale-up architecture. An efficient balance of consistent performance, cost and risk make iglu ideal for virtualised enterprise applications such as databases, e-mail and web infrastructure. All iglu systems can uniquely be adapted to SDS requirements at no additional cost. Additional benefits from X-IO software and hardware innovations include:
· Self-healing storage, offering high levels of availability, backed by five-year warranties for “low-touch” storage reliability
· The ability to provide 100 percent performance at 100 percent performance capacity utilisation, helping eliminate the worry of capacity management
· iglu blaze can provide consistent high I/O and low latency for applications through offloading of storage performance and reliability control to the underlying ISE arrays
· Deep integration with a wide variety of operating systems and hypervisors for simplified administration and operational flexibility
· Re-deployment of ISE storage for software-defined initiatives, enabling long-term investment protection.

“As a long-time X-IO solutions partner, we are no stranger to witnessing innovation,” said Christopher Dye, chief technology officer of Paragon Solutions Group. “We are particularly excited, however, to add iglu blaze to our portfolio. X-IO’s self-healing storage elements have consistently delivered superior performance, value, and reliability as the storage cornerstone in our data centre and software-defined storage implementations. We are now working with X-IO and iglu blaze to deliver the same capabilities within a pre-configured, fully-featured, SAN solution.”

“Customers continue to demand flexible storage architectures to address their needs for high reliability and predictable performance. We’ve seen this time and again regardless of the application environment,” said Bill Miller, chairman and CEO of X-IO. “Starting with iglu blaze, we’re building on great core technology to offer enterprises differentiated storage solutions that adapt best to their data centre, without requiring specialist skills or costly operational overheads to manage over many years.”