You have probably heard about Storage Spaces Direct (S2D), one of the exciting new features found in Windows Server 2016 Datacenter. But do you know what S2D is? Today we look at how Storage Spaces Direct works, the benefits it can provide your customers, and the Windows Server Software Defined (WSSD) Solutions from HPE that can help simplify the software-defined transition.
S2D is a software-defined storage solution and is the evolution of Storage Spaces, which was first introduced in Windows Server 2012. It leverages many of the features you know today in Windows Server, such as Failover Clustering, the Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) file system, Server Message Block (SMB) 3, and of course Storage Spaces. It also introduces new technology, most notably the Software Storage Bus.
So, how does it work? Storage Spaces Direct uses clustered, industry-standard servers, such as HPE ProLiant Gen10 Servers, with locally attached drives to create highly available, highly scalable software-defined storage at a fraction of the cost of traditional SAN (storage area network) or NAS (network attached storage) arrays.
Migrating your customers to software-defined datacenters can help them overcome many challenges related to system management, security, and operational costs by pooling resources (compute, storage, and network) on a group of clustered servers—also known as “hyper-converged infrastructure”—to simplify, scale, and more easily orchestrate resources across the data center.
- Simplicity
- Unrivaled Performance
- Fault Tolerance
- Resource Efficiency
- Manageability
- Scalability
However, even with all of these benefits, many organizations simply do not have the time, budget, or expertise to implement such a business-critical transformation… But we've got a great solution for them!
To simplify the software-defined transition, HPE and Microsoft have joined forces to deliver a solution… As a Windows Server Software-Defined (WSSD) partner, Hewlett Packard Enterprise offers you a choice of ready-to-go WSSD validated solution configurations based on specific HPE ProLiant Servers and components which are tested, optimized, and WSSD validated with Windows Server Datacenter’s Storage Spaces Direct to deliver reliable solid performance, and high availability for HCI.
These new offers enable automation and simplified infrastructure management to streamline and speed operations of pooled, secured, scalable resources, along with a single point of HPE contact for lifecycle support. Learn more about HPE Windows Server Software Defined Solutions.
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Willa
Willa manages the HPE | Microsoft Coffee Coaching program. Follow along to learn more about the latest HPE OEM Microsoft product releases and how the HPE Microsoft partnership can benefit partners and customers.
