Hands-on RAID >BY CHRIS BUCHOLTZ, West Coast Bureau Chief

A storage architecture announced today could help carriers simplify managing large volumes of consumer and network information while improving storage performance.

The architecture, OmniRAID from Storage Computer Corp., Nashua, N.H., lets users implement multiple RAID-level strategies on its Storage SuperServer line of high-performance storage devices. The architecture lets users tailor the storage strategy to different types of data, enabling managers to avoid the performance penalties inherent in each RAID level.

RAID storage is designed to provide high-availability, highly recoverable storage for critical applications. The technology writes data across multiple disks so that a failure in one disk will not result in a loss of data or storage availability.

RAID is defined by a series of levels determining how disk arrays are used. But focusing on hardware has caused problems for end users who face increasingly complex types of data.

"The original RAID levels were strategies based on the hardware," said Anne Murphy, vice president of marketing for Storage Computer. "Those strategies worked well with certain kinds of data, but when the data didn't fit the mold, you suffered a performance penalty. OmniRAID's philosophy is to associate the RAID level with the data and choose which level will work most efficiently.

The OmniRAID implementation can automatically switch between four storage strategies: Levels 0, 3, 5 and 7.

While OmniRAID can handle switches between levels automatically, the architecture also lets users customize their storage systems, allowing for selectable parity protection at the transaction level.

"If the customer wants to stripe across all the disks, or use six to 10 disks for an operation, he can make that decision based on his business," said Murphy.

The strategy, which was announced in conjunction with Storage Computer's OmniForce business continuance solution, could help carriers maintain 100% system uptime as management functions are being consolidated.

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