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Network Storage Easy Networks With ENSA

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DQI Bureau
New Update

The Compaq Enterprise

Net-work Storage Architecture (ENSA) is a new approach to stor



age in the enterprise, one in which servers can acquire storage
through a unique utility gateway. It can be widely deployed and

managed symbiotically with computing systems and applications. ENSA

provides reliable means to manage storage, including the ability

to easily modify storage configurations, and to dynamically and

automatically allocate storage on an as-needed basis to distributed

application servers. The architecture also includes ways to quickly

and easily restore or backup application data with minimal interruption

of application activity. In addition to its own management capabilities,

ENSA can readily be integrated with general enterprise computing

management frameworks and tools.




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ENSA

in knowledge stores




ENSA addresses key business issues facing the IT industry today:



  • Knowledge

    is an important competitive advantage for any business. The drive

    to grow knowledge stores and improve storage hardware economics

    leads to an explosive growth in storage and computing resources.



  • As overall

    business success depends increasingly on applications and their

    underlying data, continuous, reliable and rapid access becomes

    critical and mandates guaranteed online access and quick restores

    of lost data.



  • Storage management

    is becoming increasingly complex. Acquisition, retention and efficient

    use of valuable IT professionals is critical.



  • Rapid technology

    shifts offer competitive advantage opportunities for early adopters,

    but require investment protection and non-disruptive integration

    of new products.



ENSA addresses

these issues by transforming storage into a utility service that

is accessed reliably and transparently by users, and professionally

managed with tools and technology behind the scenes. It is inclusive,

and envisions an enterprise where storage area networks, network-attached

storage and direct attached storage play important roles in meeting

business requirements.



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It offers significant

benefits over other implementations. Many applications require storage

with various performance attributes. ENSA provides performance attributes

specific to each application. Conventional configurations offer

centralized storage, but may not provide a single repository. Only

ENSA offers the range of configuration, performance tuning, monitoring

and data protection capabilities needed to unify the enterprise

storage



environment.



The ENSA concept

of a storage web allows a single storage repository to extend to

any location in the world within a framework of open standards by

partnering with the best solutions providers in the industry. This

unified worldwide storage entity simplifies data management benefits

of a single storage resource.



Creating

convenience




MANAGING GROWTH: Enables economies of scale to lower acquisition
costs. Easily scaled storage capacity is allocated to heterogeneous

systems from a single common pool on an as-needed basis.



LEVERAGING RAPID TECHNOLOGY CHANGE: New products and technologies
can quickly be incorporated into the storage infrastructure with

minimal disruption. ENSA builds upon and leverages today's storage

products, thus preserving investments in current storage and management

technology.



DATA MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION: Allows small teams to design,
manage and grow the storage pool for the entire enterprise. ENSA

provides automated alternatives for many of today's management activities.

This is accomplished by disk virtualization. The key to making this

work is dual virtualization, where physical disks are consolidated

into a large pool from which disks are created for use by applications.

ENSA adopts a primary data protection mechanism of instantaneous

replication, significantly reducing the cost of recovering damaged

data. Rapid restores, unobtrusive to applications, are now possible.



ENSURING BUSINESS CONTINUANCE: Supports continuous operation
by providing prompt, reliable and uninterrupted access to data.

ENSA allows for automatic, online data duplication over unlimited

distances worldwide.



BALANCING SECURITY AND INFORMATION ACCESS: Professional storage
managers control access and ensure proper security and data protection.



PROVIDING RAPID RESPONSE TO USER DEMANDS: Allows resources
to be reallocated quickly, providing rapid support for new applications,

changing performance requirements and new servers.









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ENSA is unique

because it provides the storage utility at all levels of cost, availability

and performance that the customer requires-from inexpensive workgroup

file and print to highly available databases. Physical centralization

of storage or investments in large storage increments are unnecessary.

Instead, storage is delivered dynamically at the availability and

performance levels required by applications.



Through commonality

of components and software tools throughout the enterprise, ENSA

also enables the investments in storage to be migrated among applications,

availability levels, performance requirements and other needs dictated

by the user. Total cost of ownership is minimized by logically centralizing

configuration, management and backup tasks for all storage rather

than consolidating physical storage centralized in a datacenter.



Managing

storage




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