Not satisfied with just taking on rivals like EMC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. in high-end data storage, Compaq Computer Corp. is targeting the low end as well.
The Houston companys server group on Monday announced new entry-level clustered storage hardware, at half the price of the compatible beginner product from its sister, Compaqs enterprise storage group.
The Compaq Smart Array Cluster Storage will scale with 14 disk drives up to one terabyte, said Vince Gayman, vice president for management and high availability. Itll be available in two weeks, starting at $6,500, with typical configurations in the $10,000 range, Gayman said.
The product is “very entry-level in terms of cost and ease of use,” he said.
Customers can upgrade the system as demand dictates because its based on the same cabinet as the StorageWorks entry-level product, the MSA1000 series. That series costs twice as much but uses the more sophisticated Fibre Channel connections.
Both series use most of the same management tools, he said.
By the end of the year, Compaq will likely add iSCSI functionality, and InfiniBand connectivity is also being considered, Gayman said.
Also on Monday, Compaq rolled out three clustering bundles based on ProLiant servers. The packages ship with various combinations of the Smart Array Cluster Storage and StorageWorks hardware and software.