Symmetric Active/Active Controller

Executive Summary

Storage administrators, already confronted with unprecedented data growth, now encounter a new imperative: to discover and exploit efficiencies at every level, from storage administration to data flow, in order to keep to an absolute minimum the amount of new staff, hardware and software required to manage ever increasing volumes of data. The Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family addresses the needs of growing businesses by supporting operational efficiency at a high level and providing throughput and scalability at every stage of growth.

Within the Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family, the innovative architecture of the Hitachi Dynamic Load Balancing Controller plays a pivotal role by automatically and dynamically managing storage loads and dramatically simplifying storage administration, while providing the superior levels of performance that growing businesses require. Its symmetric active/active controller technology offers something unique: by decoupling the host system from specific LUN assignments, I/O processes can be automatically routed along the most efficient path, for unprecedented flexibility and optimized SAN performance.

This paper examines the complexity and management challenges presented by the current storage landscape, the explosive growth of data storage requirements and what it all means to businesses. In addition, the paper reviews various controller technologies as well as issues faced by administrators working to optimize dynamic workloads. Finally, it provides a detailed discussion of the Hitachi Dynamic Load Balancing Controller — a symmetric active/active implementation — and its ability to simplify storage management, improve efficiency and performance, and provide the capabilities required for future growth.