EMC, IBM roll out cheaper network storage

The mid-range of the network-attached storage (NAS) market suddenly got much livelier with recent introductions of new, lower-cost systems from EMC Corp. and extensions to IBM Corp.'s NAS Gateway 500.

EMC advertises the Celerra NS500, starting at about $40,000 for a single Data Mover 1 terabyte solution, as a new entry-level point for the Celerra NAS family of products, available as either integrated or gateway (NS500G) models.

The NS500G, which connects NAS to storage-area networks (SANs), is a dual-processor system that can handle as much as 16 terabytes of storage per processor. It starts at less than $38,000.

EMC also introduced the NS704G, which has scalability of up to four Data Movers, extending a user's upgrade path from the NS500G entry level through NS600G to the new higher end of the product line.

The NS704G has a list price of $165,000.

All of the company's new systems come with an improved version of the company's DART operating system, which includes an at-a-glance display that provides administrators with a one-stop capability for monitoring system and performance issues.

IBM, meanwhile, has introduced a single processor version of the NAS Gateway 500 systems, which until now required at least a dual-processor card. That lowers the entry price for the company's NAS systems to about $60,000, approximately 40 percent less than the previous price.

The NAS Gateway 500 family now scales from the new single-processor system up to eight-processor versions.

Robinson is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Ore. He can be reached at hullite@mindspring.com.