Storage virtualization appliances have been available for the last few years, but the adoption has been slow. The early innovators of this technology, as so often is the case, were startup companies. Eventually larger vendors have introduced solutions in the market. These solutions typically take the form of an appliance or a switch. HDS has taken a unique and innovative approach with the Hitachi TagmaStore Universal Storage Platform (USP), an Enterprise-class storage system that also provides storage virtualization to externally-attached storage systems creating an intelligent storage network.

The Hitachi TagmaStore Universal Storage Platform

The USP is a new category of product that integrates an Enterprise-class storage system with a storage virtualization platform that manages external FIbre Channel (FC) attached storage systems. The USP provides a single point of control to simplify the management of multiple tiers of storage and can manage up to 32 PB (32,000 TB) of total storage from a single pane of glass.

"The [USP] is a new approach combining the centralized intelligence found with fabric-based solutions and the intelligence at the edge provided by the storage controller through a unified platform. At the center of this approach is a next generation storage controller with its own internal storage that also provides fabric-based virtualization services to manage external storage systems on the SAN. This presents a compelling combination of enterprise-class functionality, unprecedented scalability, performance and managed capacity." ESG Research: Storage Virtualization: A New Compelling and Vision and Approach / July 2004