48 port solution for SAN Performance Probe

The ProbeFC8-HD48 delivers six times the density of the original ProbeFC8 and lowers the cost per monitored link by 50 percent. It also uses 75 percent less rackspace and consumes 75 percent less power for the same monitoring footprint. Traditionally, organisations have deployed dedicated monitoring solutions only against tier-1 revenue-generating or customer-facing applications. With the improved cost/benefit ratio of the ProbeFC8-HD48, organisations can now affordably monitor a broader application portfolio and drive greater performance optimisation across more of the IT infrastructure.

Today’s IT environments, which leverage virtualisation and cloud computing technologies, are designed for the utmost flexibility and require a solution that provides real-time visibility into the performance of the underlying infrastructure. Statistical sampling or polling technologies, which gather incomplete data, are no longer sufficient. Instrumenting the physical SAN and seeing the traffic at the protocol level allows organisations to monitor every exchange and measure the impact of the SAN on application response times. This insight enables organisations to better align application requirements with performance capabilities, utilisation levels and cost requirements to deliver on the value that is the promise of virtualisation and cloud computing.

“We’ve listened to feedback from our customers and only two years after we introduced the first of the ProbeFC8 family of devices we’ve made significant strides in improving the density and economics of the solution,” said Barry Cooks, vice president of engineering, Virtual Instruments. “The addition of the ProbeFC8-HD48 rounds out the portfolio of SAN Performance Probes and expands the scope and scale of the IT environments that we can address.”

The SAN Performance Probe family of devices is the only solution on the market that delivers the real-time visibility that customers need to optimise the performance of their IT infrastructure. The ProbeFC8-HD48 is designed for large scale deployments with high port density storage arrays and for high-growth storage environments. The ProbeFC8-HD, which was introduced last year and monitors up to 16 Fibre Channel links per unit, is built for mid-scale, distributed deployments with mid-tier storage arrays. The ProbeFC8, which monitors up to 8 Fibre Channel links per unit, is ideal for small, entry-level deployments.

Simon Close, Head of Service Operations at Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc stated: “In the last 10 years I have seen a dramatic improvement in the capability and reliability of SAN and Fibre Channel monitoring equipment. Of equal importance though is the significant reduction in cost and complexity. There is no longer the need to implement expensive and complex Physical Layer Switches in front of SAN taps, since high density and low managed port costs for the first time really makes this technology affordable, pervasive and in reach of all enterprises that run mission-critical SAN-based applications. I eagerly await the delivery of the latest such technology from Virtual Instruments as they launch their 48-port probe. Higher density, lower power and cooling requirements, combined with a significant reduction in managed port cost mean that all storage ports can be monitored on a full-time basis, and I can even reserve the odd port or two for special investigation purposes (e.g. server side monitoring).”

The SAN Performance ProbeFC8-HD48 is part of Virtual Instruments’ Infrastructure Performance Management platform, VirtualWisdom. VirtualWisdom provides a broad and deep view into the performance, health and utilisation of large-scale, heterogeneous infrastructures, helping drive improved performance and availability while lowering the total cost of the infrastructure supporting mission-critical applications.