LSI Logic Corporation today announced a storage area network (SAN) solution in collaboration with QLogic that meets the requirements of the Microsoft Simple SAN Solution for Windows Server Program. The solution will be demonstrated this week at Storage Networking World in the Microsoft partner pavilion. The offering will be made available to customers through IBM.

The offering provides small and medium businesses (SMBs) with a SAN solution in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 environments without complicated deployment or maintenance complexities. It features a choice of either the IBM System Storage™ DS4100 or DS4300 disk systems, based on technology from LSI Logic, and QLogic SANblade® host bus adapters (HBAs), SANbox® switches and SANsurfer Express™ software.

“Today’s small and medium sized businesses are looking for cost-effective solutions to manage the data demands of increasingly complex business environments,” said Charlie Andrews, director, System Storage™ Marketing, IBM. “SANs are no longer relegated to large companies alone, but affordable and flexible enough to fit any infrastructure. IBM prides itself on offering the broadest scope of storage solutions, and Microsoft’s Simple SAN Initiative is a great way to meet the storage demands of this new emerging category of SAN customer.”

By choosing the simple SAN approach, customers gain the advantage of enterprise class functionality without the costs and complexities normally associated with SAN environments. The IBM DS4000 series disk systems, based on technology from LSI, feature pay-as-you-grow scalability, support for Fibre Channel and Serial ATA disk drives and advanced replication functionality, such as FlashCopy. For improved efficiency of backup management processes that complements Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft SQL Server environments, SMBs can leverage the LSI Logic providers for Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 Virtual Disk Service and Volume Shadow Copy Service.

"With large IT staffs, enterprise-size organisations have long been able to take advantage of the scalability, flexibility and efficiencies of storage area networks. However, in the SMB space, where dedicated storage administrators are rare, deploying and maintaining SANs has been difficult until now,” said Dr. Claude Lorenson, group product manager, Storage Technologies at Microsoft Corporation. “Microsoft is pleased to be working with LSI Logic and QLogic to bring the business benefits of SANs to more businesses.”

“The capabilities of storage area networks have eluded many in the SMB space, as the costs and complexities of SANs in the past have not justified the return on investment,” said Julie Ryan, director of alliances, Engenio Storage Group, LSI Logic. “Now, SMBs can migrate to an affordable SAN infrastructure that features industry-leading technologies that can be easily installed, configured and managed without sacrificing functionality.”

The LSI and QLogic solution leverages Microsoft’s VDS, which provides an end-to-end solution to manage storage hardware and disks and to create volumes on the disks. Each component has achieved Windows Hardware Qualification Lab (WHQL) certification, and has been qualified both individually and as a collective solution in Microsoft’s Simple SAN Initiative. All of the devices in this SAN infrastructure can be managed by QLogic’s SANsurfer Express software.

“By working with Microsoft and the Simple SAN initiative, LSI and QLogic are opening new doors for small and medium sized businesses,” said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp. “When the LSI arrays are combined with QLogic’s switch and HBA technology all managed by SANsurfer Express, SMBs and first time SAN users are equipped with a cutting edge solution that is easily deployed and managed.”

About LSI Logic Corporation
LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE: LSI) is a leading provider of silicon-to-system solutions that are used at the core of products that create, store and consume digital information. LSI offers a broad portfolio of capabilities including custom and standard product ICs, host bus and RAID adapters, storage area network solutions and software applications. LSI products enable leading technology companies in the Storage and Consumer markets to deliver some of the most advanced and well-known electronic systems in the market today. More information is available at http://www.lsi.com.