Hitachi Data Systems has announced major upgrades to its management software and storage systems for rich media, with applications including broadcast news, entertainment and Internet programming. The improvements include increased capacity modular storage, higher performance connectivity, better interoperability between devices and new tools for data protection and management.
Hitachi has upgraded its Thunder 9580V and Lightning 9900 V Series storage systems. The company has also introduced new management software that would allow users to better shift data files among storage devices during different times in its useful business life. This addresses a trend the industry calls Information Lifecycle Management, or ILM.
In broadcast content terms, ILM means programming is managed based on its relevance and value to the broadcaster at a given moment. For example, during a breaking news story, critical content resides on a high-end, quickly accessible storage device. Once the story’s immediacy has receded, the content can then be shifted to a less costly storage area for archiving.
Hitachi’s new HiCopy cross-system replication software for the first time allows data movement between Lightning 9900 V Series and Thunder 9500 V Series storage systems. With HiCopy, customers benefit from consolidated backup capabilities and the ability to move data between tiers, either within a data center or across remote locations. This enables a facility-wide, tiered storage strategy manageable through a single interface, the HiCommand Device Manager.
On the data protection front, Hitachi’s QuickShadow copy-on-write snapshot software offers point-in-time copies without requiring a full volume backup. QuickShadow copies only changed data, allowing more frequent restore points for faster resumption of service with minimal storage requirements. With QuickShadow, customers can maintain copies of their data at multiple points-in-time for recovery to any previously saved version.
For more information, visit www.hds.com.
