INDUSTRY

EqualLogic, a leading provider of iSCSI-based, self-managing networked storage solutions, announced that Plains Exploration & Production Company is using the PeerStorage array storage area network (SAN) solution as the foundation of its new blade-server-based data center. The new virtual data center allows PXP's IT managers to easily add or remove blade servers connected to a single pool of storage - enabling quick recovery from operator errors, ongoing operation of backup-and-restore procedures without downtime, and instant provisioning of server and storage resources for new applications. Plains Exploration & Production Company (PXP) is an independent oil and gas company engaged in the activities of acquiring, developing, exploiting, and producing oil and gas properties in California, Louisiana and Texas. PXP's traditional IT infrastructure of standalone servers and direct-attached storage (DAS) could not keep up with the company's growth, and routine server downtime was consuming administrative resources and costing the company money. PXP enlisted Conxerge, an integrated solutions provider and one of EqualLogic's channel partners, to design and implement an entirely new data center architecture. Conxerge designed the new data center based on EqualLogic's PeerStorage Array 100E and E-Blade blade servers to create a distributed, virtualized computing and storage resource. The new data center was first deployed at the company's Houston headquarters and on one of its offshore oil platforms. Now it supports PXP's critical asset management applications, including maintenance, inventory and procurement. The solution is so successful that PXP and Conxerge are in the process of implementing it throughout the company, including all of its oil and gas producing and processing offshore platforms. The EqualLogic PeerStorage array platform was selected because of its seamless interoperability with blade servers to create a fault-tolerant, virtual data center environment that delivers computing and storage resources on demand. A unique attribute of the PXP data center is its compact size: the entire data center, consisting of PeerStorage arrays, blade servers, Gigabit Ethernet switching, and redundant uninterruptible power supplies is housed in one 24-U rack that fits into a closet. The 40-U option includes a fully self-contained air conditioned cooling system. The innovative data center design eliminates the need for a traditional large, raised-floor operations room; and it costs less than half the amount of purchasing and operating a conventional solution using standalone servers and a Fibre Channel SAN. "It was clear that we needed an entirely new way of managing our data center, as the old model could no longer keep up with the escalating demands the company was placing on its computing and storage resources," said Philip Skeete, IT director for Plains Exploration & Production Company. "The impact of our new virtual data center platform has been dramatic. Downtime on the first offshore oil platform to run on the new architecture has been eliminated and the recent integration of a newly acquired company's IT operations was incredibly smooth - thanks to the combined flexibility of blades and the PeerStorage array." "The PXP solution demonstrates the full potential of the PeerStorage architecture, which was designed for storage virtualization, automatic management and on-the-fly server provisioning," said John Joseph, vice president of EqualLogic. "PeerStorage arrays are ideally suited for blade servers, which can be replaced, provisioned and hot-swapped dynamically, as needed with no disruption of service. Together with innovative solution integrators like Conxerge, we are delivering the virtual data center of tomorrow - today." EqualLogic is the only standards-compliant IP SAN solution provider to offer a comprehensive and fully integrated standard feature set at no additional cost to the customer. Each PeerStorage Array 100E supports up to 3.5 terabytes of storage capacity, comes with fully redundant fault-tolerant hardware and includes full-featured automatic storage-management software. Up to 32 arrays can be combined to form a scalable enterprise storage grid of more than 100 terabytes.