SANs are traditionally considered a big-business option, but increased choices in configurations are making the technology more affordable for smaller companies.
IBM this week will announce its FAStT 600 SAN system, with triple the throughput and more internal storage than the older FAStT 200, said Bob Degler, product manager, in Armonk, N.Y. The new version initially scales to 6 terabytes, but a summer upgrade will achieve 16.4 terabytes, plus clustering, support for Windows Server 2003 and the ability to set more partitions, Degler said.
The FAStT 600 has four 2G-bps Fibre Channel ports and is available with the IBM Tivoli divisions SRM Express software, which has resource management for desktop data. The unit, which is expected to ship next week, will cost about $15,000, with an added $65 per client for SRM Express.
Hewlett-Packard Co.s newest storage area network is a small-scale version of HPs midrange EVA (Enterprise Virtual Array) series. The new EVA 3000 will be announced and immediately available April 15 at the Storage Networking World show in Phoenix, officials said. The EVA 3000 scales to 8 terabytes. Its pricing starts at $63,000, officials said. The system will link to the CommandView feature of HPs OpenView management suite.
“Were faced with issues of digitizing content, and we need to archive things. Going with a SAN gives us the flexibility of a mixed environment,” said Rick Crelia, systems administrator for Oregon State Universitys Valley Library, in Corvallis.
“Were going to start probably at 2 to 4 [terabytes] in the first couple of years,” Crelia said, adding that features such as IP replication are an important consideration, too.
While some vendors are opting to shrink existing SAN offerings, others prefer a more targeted approach. Adaptec Inc., the Milpitas, Calif., company known for its host bus adapters, acquired Eurologic Systems Ltd., of Dublin, Ireland, last week for $30 million.
It will begin integrating its iSCSI technology with Eurologic arrays in six months, officials said.
“More midsize businesses are starting to demand to share data among servers,” said Ahmet Houssein, general manager and vice president of Adaptecs storage solutions group. The company expects its iSCSI adapters, bundled with Eurologics arrays, to be an ideal midrange solution.
Most Recent Storage Stories:
Search for more stories by Evan Koblentz.
Find white papers on storage.
For more storage news, check out Ziff Davis Medias Storage Supersite.