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Targeting enterprise customers both big and small that need of better storage management for their data systems, MCI Inc. on Wednesday introduced its new automated and on-demand Utility Storage Service featuring allocation-based billing. Customers are charged monthly based on the sum of storage allocated to safeguard their data.
MCIs new managed service requires commitment levels starting at a minimum of 50GB and a maximum of 3,000GB for their SAN (storage area network) capacity deployments.
According to officials of Ashburn, Va.-based MCI, monthly fees for MCIs Utility Storage Service ranges from $3.50 to $12.00 per gigabyte depending on usage patterns. The hosted service is currently available in MCI Smart Centers located in San Jose, Calif., and Beltsville, Md.
By taking advantage of MCIs pay-as-you-go model and limitless access to storage, IT users can better manage their SAN infrastructure and avoid hot spots of overused disk space, MCI officials said. The newest addition to MCIs Enterprise Hosting portfolio, Utility Storage Service, is architected to work in tandem with MCIs Smart Back Up and Enhanced Smart Back Up offerings to boost data protection levels for customers.
The multi-gigabit fiber channel network-based Utility Storage Service enables utility storage connections to the server and features dual-host bus adapter connectivity for clustered and standalone servers. It also offers capacity on-demand with the flexibility to add capacity based on immediate need and reporting functions that discern volume size in addition to file and directory utilization using MCIs Client Central Portal.
MCIs Utility Storage Service features integrated storage management and storage provisioning technology through partnerships with AppIQ Inc. and 3PARdata Inc., respectively.