All the right connections

With a networked infrastructure, customers can link multiple storage devices to multiple servers, allowing better resource utilisation, ease of management and simpler expansion.

The basis for most corporate networks, IP and Ethernet are increasingly being used for metropolitan and wide area networking as well.

With about 30 years of research, development and integration, IP networks provide the utmost in manageability, interoperability and cost-effectiveness. With a networked storage infrastructure, customers can link multiple storage devices to multiple servers allowing for better resource utilisation, ease of storage management and simpler expansion of the storage infrastructure.

In future, power over Ethernet (PoE) will completely change the way organisations deploy networked devices. As the region grows, PoE will become an important part of infrastructures in all the new developments taking place in the Middle East.

Enhanced services

"3Com systems provide the communication architectures that governments and enterprises across the Middle East require to enhance services, contain costs and bolster security. We can affordably link agencies, departments, offices and remote workers into cohesive networking infrastructures that accelerate processes and data sharing with all stakeholders," says Tahir Khan, Systems Engineer, 3Com Middle East.

"With an unmatched array of solutions, 3Com can help organisations to achieve their objectives of wireless, scalable and mobile environments across the region," he says.

HP recently introduced the HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure which enables users to wire computing resources once and change them on the fly, dynamically adjust power and cooling to reduce energy consumption, and increase administrative productivity up to tenfold.

The HP BladeSystem c-Class is also modular allowing businesses of any size to start with HP ProLiant and Integrity servers, HP StorageWorks storage offerings as well as client blades and then flexibly add applications and third-party products to expand their data centres as needed.

With the new design, an average enterprise data centre can realise - over a three-year period - system acquisition cost savings of up to 41 per cent, data centre facilities cost savings of up to 60 per cent, and initial system set-up time cost savings of up to 96 per cent.

The HP BladeSystem c-Class portfolio is a key part of HP's adaptive infrastructure offering, which helps customers move toward automated, 'lights-out' computing environments that lower the cost of IT operations and deliver a higher quality of service.

"The HP BladeSystem c-Class portfolio leverages the best technologies across HP - from nonstop servers to printers - and brings them together to fundamentally improve how our customers buy, build, manage and use their computing resources," says Ryan D'souza, Product Manager, Industry Standard Servers, HP. "By implementing a simple, 'out-of-the-box' design, customers can dramatically reduce the biggest IT cost drivers and barriers to change in today's racked, stacked and wired data centres."

According to Hishamul Hasheel, Technical Sales Manager, U.S. Robotics Middle East and North Africa, in the networking storage field, serial ATA hard drives and steep decrease in hard drive prices create more demand for the online network attached storage (NAS) devices with USB interface and hot plug able (plug-n-play) features.