Hitachi Data Systems will announce upgrades to its midrange Thunder storage arrays the week of Oct. 6, say sources.
Code-named Thor L, the new 9580V series has speed improvements and a switch-based internal architecture, an industry reseller said. It can hold approximately 450 drives and works with HDS Sentinel management software, said sources.
The 9580V will also have SnapCopy software, they added. Speed and software upgrades to the existing 9570V, 9530V and 9200 series are also forthcoming. The 9570V and 9530V upgrades are code-named Thor M and Thor S, respectively, and are managed by the related SANtinel application, they said.
Thunder systems are still being developed with iSCSI options, as are serial ATA drives for disk-based backup purposes, sources said.
Software called HiCopy will link the SATA version to Hitachis high-end Lightning array, itself due for an upgrade early next year.
Officials of HDS, the Santa Clara, Calif., division of Tokyos Hitachi Ltd., did not comment. Industry analysts are being briefed next week, many contacted by eWEEK said.