LSI Releases Syncro CS For Not-So-Huge Business Applications

LSI is announcing immediate availability of its new Syncro CS storage solution for small and medium-sized business (SMB), and for remote and branch offices (ROBO).  The Syncro CS is a robust, cost-effective and easy to deploy high availability storage solution for not-so-huge applications.  In conjunction with Microsoft Windows Server 2012, the Syncro CS brings shared storage and storage controller failover into DAS environments at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other high availability solutions.

Even small and medium-sized operations require high availability of storage systems.  When critical data and routines are not accessible, lost revenue and productivity can result; which often leads to customer dissatisfaction.  The LSI Syncro CS reduces downtime for critical applications, and makes failover latency transparent to the applications and users.  The Syncro CS offers high performance, robust data protection, and low cost and low complexity that is inherent in DAS solutions while adding the new benefits of shared storage and higher availability.

The Syncro CS is built on LSI’s MegaRaid technology, and utilizes two controller cards to allow system admins to build their own shared DAS solution with high availability.  The Syncro CS will be offered in two deployment models:

The Syncro CS 9286-8e — Shared storage clustering using two volume servers and an off-the-shelf JBOD setup.  This affordable, high-availability solution brings shared storage and controller failover to Direct Attached Storage (DAS) environments.

The Syncro CS 9271-8i —  This version enable OEMs and system builders to use LSI’s Syncro CS controllers to build a cost-effective, two-node Cluster-in-a-Box (CiB) that delivers high availability in a single self-contained unit.

According to Bill Wuertz, senior vice president and general manager for LSI’s RAID Storage Division, “The need to have uninterrupted access to business-critical applications, combined with the growth in virtualization and storage managed per server make Syncro CS a compelling solution for today’s most data-intensive environments.  Syncro CS brings the important enterprise capabilities of data sharing and application uptime to the SMB market, and ensures uninterrupted productivity.”

LSI collaborated with Microsoft to ensure that Syncro CS, running on the popular Windows Server 2012 platform, provides seamless high availability.  Windows Server 2012 provides the failover clustering and management capabilities, while LSI delivers the clustered storage subsystem via the Syncro CS.

Chris Philips, Microsoft general manager for Windows Server Solutions Group, states that “Storage is an essential element of a highly available system and at Microsoft, we knew we needed to work closely with LSI as the market leader in RAID storage solutions.  With Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and Syncro, high availability can now be deployed on a massive scale and deliver the key benefits found in traditional high-availability systems.”

And for an independent viewpoint, Dan Iacono, research director of Storage Systems at IDC, remarks that “As the SMB market experiences about 30% growth year-over-year, the value of the data grows with it and increases the need for higher availability storage systems.  By enabling SMBs to lower the cost of their storage systems while simultaneously protecting their businesses with high availability solutions like LSI’s Syncro CS, business efficiency is greatly improved.”

LSI Syncro CS, along with LSI’s Nytro applications accelerations solutions, are being featured this week at Microsoft TechEd; and can be seen at the LSI booth.  Greg Huff, LSI CTO will be presenting a session on Tuesday, June 4th, entitled “Shouldn’t all your storage be highly available?”.  The Syncro CS is already shipping to the LSI worldwide distribution network and OEM customers.  The LSI Syncro CS product page can be viewed here.