Compaq Computer Corp. today announced a new entry-level SAN (storage-area network) offering, and will eliminate its current entry-level offering, the RA4100.
The StorageWorks Modular SAN Array, which is shipping immediately, uses 42 drives of 72 GB each and can scale to about 3 terabytes, said Roger Archibald, vice president and general manager of Compaqs Enterprise Storage Group, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Pricing starts at between $30,000 and $40,000, he said.
They main new feature is the ability to swap drives from a users existing storage array and install them into a SAN Array, Archibald said. The software will auto-discover the drives and reconstruct the array.
Compaq will also offer an optional five-port Fibre Channel switch, Archibald said. Thats supplied by Gadzoox Networks Inc., of San Jose, Calif., but will be branded as a Compaq component. The systems will also support Compaqs SecurePath redundancy and failover products, and its Virtual Replicator, which does host-based data virtualization.
“There is still a lot left to do,” Archibald said. The system currently supports Microsoft Corp., Novell Inc., and Compaqs own operating systems; by early next year it will also support Sun Microsystems Inc.s Solaris and Hewlett-Packard Co.s HP-UX.
But Archibald added that its not going to be part of Compaqs technology-sharing agreement with rival EMC Corp., announced earlier this year. In that deal, Compaq and EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., agreed to share technology that would let them each make the others hardware manageable through their own software consoles.