IBM Corp. on Tuesday was expected to introduce its latest storage networking initiatives, announcing members of the TotalStorage NAS (Network Attached Storage) 200 and 300 families, as well as enhancements to its tape storage offerings.
Specifically, IBM said it planned to introduce the following:
– IBM TotalStorage NAS 200 – The tower storage unit comes with one processor and up to 216G bytes of storage capacity, said Bob Maness, IBM’s director of tape storage products. The NAS 200 is designed for service providers who need to be able to physically move a storage unit quickly, he said. It will be available June 29 with a starting list price of US$17,000, Maness said.
– TotalStorage NAS 200 rack version – This comes with two processors and up to 1.74T bytes of storage space. It is designed for businesses like retail, banking and insurance companies where branch offices or departments need to store data for file serving or client backups. The TotalStorage NAS 225 is due out June 29 and will carry a list price of $75,000 for a system with 1T byte of storage, IBM said.
– IBM TotalStorage 300 – The fault-tolerant, dual engine storage unit is designed to meet traditional storage needs for sectors like retail, banking, finance and insurance, Maness said. The TotalStorage 300 scales up to 3.24T bytes of memory. It is due out July 13 with a list price of $115,000 for a system with 360G bytes of storage, Maness said.
– IBM TotalStorage 300G – This takes the TotalStorage 300 and adds a clustering feature that bridges the LAN (local area network) with the SAN (storage area network). Mirroring the TotalStorage 300, the 300G is also due out July 13 with a starting price of $115,000 for a system with 360G bytes of storage.
– Enhancements to the IBM TotalStorage Linear Tape-Open Libraries – IBM has added an optional gateway that provides Fibre Channel support for the Ultrium Scalable Tape Library via dual 2G-bit ports. The Fibre Channel is being announced for eServer iSeries hosts, along with remote management capabilities available through a Web browser. IBM also has added new hot swap drive and redundant drive power availability features for the UltraScalable Tape Library. The enhancements will be available on Aug. 31, the company said.
– Enhancements to the IBM TotalStorage Virtual Tape Server Family – IBM will double the number of virtual and physical drives, provide larger blocksizes and offer a new peer-to-peer configuration. In addition, the company will add support for IBM’s 3590 Cartridge and include additional Open System attachment and SAN attachment for a standalone Virtual Tape Server. The enhancements are due to be made available Sept. 14.
IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y., can be reached at http://www.ibm.com/.
