Efficiency



StoreVault’s Advanced Protection Architecture includes features that inherently reduce the overall energy footprint in your IT closet and lower power and cooling bills. At the same time, this technology improves system and data reliability.

Moving to network storage generally results in a higher degree of disk efficiency overall. Replacing multiple direct attached storage arrays with one StoreVault reduces the amount of over-allocation and surplus spinning disks in an environment. This is highly specific to each environment.

Higher density disks consume about the same amount of energy but decrease the quantity of disks needed to store the same amount of data, improving the ratio of Watts to Gigabytes.

The cross-platform and multi-protocol capability of a StoreVault means that individual IT functions can be consolidated into one device, typically cutting power consumption by at least 50%

NetApp’s FlexVol and RAID technologies are unique among small business storage products. A StoreVault can serve data from a minimum of disks and preserve capacity growth options, and remains in a RAID configuration during expansion operations. This lower disk quantity requirement directly reduces energy costs.

StoreVault snapshot technology is the most efficient in this market. Multiple complete copies of data can exist in a fraction of the space required by other products or technologies (like tape). This can mean up to at least a 2X improvement over similar products.

More certifications over more protocols with server virtualization software vendors means that virtualization projects can take advantage of one single efficient and highly flexible storage platform. Eliminate individual hardware servers running at fractional capacity.

Advanced Protection Architecture features like FlexVols save money. Traditional volumes provision capacity for current and future needs, allocating empty space for a rainy day. FlexVol “thin provisioning” automatically frees up this unused space, avoiding unnecessary premature capacity purchases and energy wasted on spinning, empty disks. The sample below compares a traditional storage array hosting Windows Shares, UNIX Exports and an Exchange server to a StoreVault with FlexVols.

Table 1 illustrates how 3 RAID-5 DAS arrays storing data in traditional volumes can be replaced by a single StoreVault with FlexVols, achieving lower power usage. Don’t forget that RAID-DP and snapshots also provide dramatic improvements in data protection over direct attached storage arrays.

 Relative increased efficiency and data protection

Direct Attached vs. Network Storage energy consumption      

	Three DAS Arrays	One StoreVault
Typical array power supply:	500W	500W
Power supplies per array	2@50% utilization	2@50% utilization
Total Wattage (450W average)	1350W	450W
Yearly energy consumption	11826 kWh	8760kWh
National power price average	$0.0951 $/kWhr	$0.0951 $/kWhr
Yearly Energy Cost	$1124.65	$374.88