Adaptec launches external storage

Three distributors selected for three new arrays

Adaptec enjoyed the magic number last week as the storage manufacturer launched products and appointed distributors to help it deliver Sans to SMEs.

Three new arrays were launched, two based on Fibre Channel (FC) and one on iSCSI. Three distributors, Hammer, Ideal and Zycko, were also appointed recently to help the vendor deliver training and support.

"Our new products will not be released to our broadline partners," said Steve Owen, EMEA products manager at Adaptec. "We want to maintain the focus on our products to firms that have lots of experience with external storage products."

The new ISA 1500 is an iSCSI ATA external storage array that provides one 1TB of storage in four hot-swappable Serial ATA (SATA) drives.

The FC products are aimed more at the mid-market. The FS4500 is a FC-to-SATA external storage Raid box, scalable to 24TB of storage. The FS4100 is a FC-to-SATA JBOD system.

"They are designed to fit onto existing FC fabrics. They have an FC face, but SATA drives," Owen said. Sangster warned that the market for these types of products is crowded.

But he added: "Adaptec has an advantage because it's an established brand name."

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