USC School of Business To Run Virtual Storage

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 01/05/09

The University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business has purchased Xiotech's Emprise 7000 storage area network (SAN) to increase network performance and improve storage management in a virtualized IT environment as the school transitions to a virtual server infrastructure.

"When our IT environment is fully virtualized, we plan to have 110 virtual machines running on six servers. So, for us, a successful transition hinged on the ability to remove the I/O bottlenecks found in traditional storage systems," said Dan Lewis, network services manager. "With Emprise 7000 we'll be able to eliminate those bottlenecks and expect to see a 200 percent increase in performance."

The school, which has 5,000 students, was especially impressed by the system's Virtual View feature, which integrates with a virtual environment and automates much of the storage provisioning and management for virtual machines. "Now we can assign and manage storage in just a few steps, saving us precious time and reducing the risk of errors," said Lewis.

The Emprise 7000 system supports up to 1,024 terabytes of data and is managed by dual, clustered storage controllers. Data communications is handled by a four gigabit/second fibre channel.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • college student sitting at a laptop writing a college essay

    How Can Schools Manage AI in Admissions?

    Many questions remain around the role of artificial intelligence in admissions as schools navigate the balance between innovation and integrity.  

  • a hobbyist in casual clothes holds a hammer and a toolbox, building a DIY structure that symbolizes an AI model

    Ditch the DIY Approach to AI on Campus

    Institutions that do not adopt AI will quickly fall behind. The question is, how can colleges and universities do this systematically, securely, cost-effectively, and efficiently?

  • person signing a bill at a desk with a faint glow around the document. A tablet and laptop are subtly visible in the background, with soft colors and minimal digital elements

    California Governor Signs AI Content Safeguards into Law

    California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially signed off on a series of landmark artificial intelligence bills, signaling the state’s latest efforts to regulate the burgeoning technology, particularly in response to the misuse of sexually explicit deepfakes. The legislation is aimed at mitigating the risks posed by AI-generated content, as concerns grow over the technology's potential to manipulate images, videos, and voices in ways that could cause significant harm.

  • laptop screen showing Coursera course

    Coursera Introduces New Gen AI Skills Training and Credentials

    Learning platform Coursera is expanding its Generative AI Academy training portfolio with an offering for teams, as well as adding new generative AI courses, specializations, and certificates.