Nimbus produces small-biz SAN
Company officials say the software lets users install a storage-area network in less than 15 minutes and manage it easily.
Nimbus Data Systems Inc. officials have produced the company's first family of Internet SCSI (iSCSI) protocol storage-attached network (SAN) systems designed specifically for small and midsize organizations with limited information technology resources.
Officials at the startup company say users with no specialized training can use the company's management software to install an IP SAN in less than 15 minutes using a Web-based interface to create, configure, partition and provision the SAN and, later, to monitor how it is working.
Optional features include remote control and secure store, remote management and synchronous data replication.
The Nimbus IPS devices use Gigabit Ethernet to connect to the network, sidestepping the need for any new hardware such as switches, host adapters or host-based failover software and delivering what officials say is near Fibre Channel performance.
The SAN systems come in either 500M or 1-terabyte configurations, though they are stackable up to a total of 8 terabytes per storage pool.
The 500M IPS-500 device is priced at just less than $5,000, while the larger IPS-1000 goes for $7,995. Licenses for the management software start at $750 for the Nimbus SAN Manager 2x2, which supports up to two initiators and two virtual disks, and $5,000 for SAN Manager 96x96.
Robinson is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Ore. He can be reached at hullite@mindspring.com.
NEXT STORY: AT&T gets new mentor project