Enterprise Reviews

February 13th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

LSI WarpDrive SLP-300 Enterprise PCIe SSD Review

When we first reviewed the LSI WarpDrive in March of last year, we absolutely loved its performance in the then-emerging PCIe SSD storage solution space. Much has changed since the initial review: StorageReview has updated our enterprise testing platform and enterprise SSD testing methodology and EMC has qualified the WarpDrive in their server caching solution, VFCache. LSI continues to improve the platform by purchasing SandForce, the controllers used in the WarpDrive solution, to bring more technology in-house.

February 6th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

Intel SSD 520 Enterprise Review

The Intel SSD 520 is targeted at the client user, but with the backing of the Intel brand and the quality of engineering that went into this SSD, it's definitely going to creep into the enterprise as well. As seen in our client Intel SSD 520 review, the SandForce-based SSD drives great performance, while offering co-developed custom firmware and Intel's best NAND. Within the enterprise, the SSD 520 will find its way not just into workstations and other PC duty, but into servers and other environments where speedy storage in largely read-oriented scenarios can really shine.

February 3rd, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

StorageReview Enterprise Testing Environment: Lenovo ThinkServer RD240 Review

Testing enterprise hardware and software requires an evaluation platform beyond consumer desktops. StorageReview understands that companies want hardware they send out for review tested in the same environment they are positioning it for and to that end we have deployed a pair of Lenovo ThinkServer RD240's for enterprise reviews. The RD240 is a 2U rack-mountable server that is designed for larger business tasks; however, its price is targeted for small and medium businesses (SMBs) making it a smart choice for businesses looking for low cost alternatives but want to maintain high levels of data protection at the same time. The RD240 gives several levels of advanced data protection, inducing RAID data cache and available battery backup and low-cost storage. This ThinkServer is no slouch though, as its powered by two Intel Xeon X5650 processors and packed with SAS/SATA 6.0Gb/s gear from LSI.

January 30th, 2012 by Lyle Smith

StorageReview Enterprise Testing Environment: Eaton 5PX UPS Review

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is an electrical device that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source fails. The main reasons to invest in a UPS is to protect your assets which can include both hardware and in many cases data. At StorageReview, we rely heavily on hardware and data in our testing environment; including both the hardware we are testing, the servers and connected equipment we use for testing, and above all else our results gained through testing. To protect our Enterprise Testing Environment, we turned to Eaton for their 5PX-2200RT UPS.

January 27th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

Samsung SSD SM825 Enterprise SSD Review

The Samsung SSD SM825 is an enterprise-grade SSD that's designed specifically for write-intensive data center workloads. Like all Samsung SSDs, the SM825 leverages all of Samsung's in-house expertise including their own eMLC NAND, 3-core controller and specialized firmware that helps to deliver 7,000 TBW, 100 times what's often seen in standard MLC NAND, while being more cost effective and delivering near-parity performance with SLC NAND. The net result is 4K random write steady state speeds we measured in excess of 9,800 IOPS and sequential 2MB write speeds topping 200MB/s.

January 21st, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

Drobo B800i Review

Drobo claims their B800i SAN is the easiest to use iSCSI array on the market. Getting the B800i up and running is as simple as connecting the appropriate data and power cables, sliding in your array of drives, and firing up the setup application on your host system. Total time spent finding a place to put it on your shelf or carefully taking it out of the box is more than actually getting it setup for use. For businesses who know they need storage, but lack the IT staff or inclination to have to configure much of anything, the Drobo family of products tends to rise to the top of the short list. But let's not leave IT out in the cold, just because the Drobo units are easy to configure and use, doesn't mean IT can't like them too.

January 13th, 2012 by Lyle Smith

Iomega StorCenter PX4-300d Review

Iomega’s StorCenter PX4-300d is the successor to the ix4-200d, both of which are specifically built for small businesses that need to store a significant amount of data. All of the models in Iomega’s PX line have similar features but differ when it comes to the number of drives and the form factor. The PX4-300d and the px6-300d are desktop devices that support up to four drives and six drives respectively. The px4-300r model is a rack unit that supports up to four drives.

January 6th, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

Toshiba MKx001GRZB Enterprise SSD Review

The Toshiba MKx001GRZB enterprise SSD was announced a year ago and went into full production in early-2011 and is Toshiba's flagship enterprise SSD; all of this seemingly done at a snail's pace when compared to the rapid churn of client-based SSDs. But in the enterprise, SSD storage buying decisions take time and aren't at all about the burst, or top line speed numbers - it's all about how the drive performs cranking away 24/7 for the many years it's expected to live in steady state. While the enterprise scales up SSD adoption, there's quite a battle in the trenches amongst manufacturers who are trying to solve a variety of problems, not the least of which is around SSD form factor and NAND configuration. For its part, Toshiba is leveraging a 6Gb/s SAS interface and 2.5" form factor for the MKx001GRZB, along with 32nm enterprise-grade SLC NAND to meet the needs of their clients.

January 2nd, 2012 by Michael Foster

Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ v2 Review

Netgear's array of products is, in a word, extensive. From home routers to enterprise-grade equipment, it's only fitting that they have a small NAS for power users and small businesses, the ReadyNAS NV+ v2. The NV+ v2 is a 4 bay unit with great performance and built so well you could use one in place of a few bricks in a pinch. Under the hood is a Marvell 1.6GHz single-core processor and 256MB of on-board RAM, which is just about right for individuals and small groups of users.

December 17th, 2011 by Kevin OBrien

Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 Review

Western Digital announced the WD Sentinel DX4000 last month in an effort to bring easy to configure NAS storage to SMBs with fewer than 25 employees. At the core of the Sentinel is Microsoft's Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials, an Intel 1.8 GHz Atom dual-core processor and two or four WD RE4-GP hard drives. Western Digital sells the Sentinel pre-configured with drives in either 4TB or 8TB models right now, with 6TB and 12TB models coming early next year. Given the Sentinel arrives with drives and is ready to roll, all it takes to get going is powering the unit up and connecting to the network, which is great for those who aren't used to dealing with storage appliances. Given the Microsoft software though, there's still plenty to tweak under the covers should SMBs with access to IT professionals care to do so.