Serial ATA and iSCSI generated a wave of innovative products in 2003. A faster, more flexible drive interface than traditional ATA, Serial ATA quickly found a home in servers, NAS appliances, and even SAN arrays, where it contributed to higher storage capacities at lower costs. In addition to testing hard disk drives and controllers based on the new standard, where we found levels of performance that can challenge SCSI, we reviewed a number of NAS boxes built around Serial ATA drives. In the case of Okapi Software’s ipXcelerator, Serial ATA combined with iSCSI, the new standard for IP-based storage networking, to produce a disk-based backup appliance. Internet SCSI was also the magic behind StorageTek’s disk-based backup and data protection appliance, and impressive IP-based SAN solutions from EqualLogic, Intransa, and LeftHand Networks.
The high water mark in our storage coverage this year was our roundup of midrange SANs from EMC, HP, and IBM, and an accompanying test of storage resource management software from EMC, HP, IBM, and Fujitsu Softek. Conducted at Hawaii’s Advanced Network Computing Lab, the battle of the SAN hardware heavyweights was closely fought: IBM held a slight edge in performance, but we were impressed by all three solutions’ speed, reliability, and manageability. In the co-test of storage management software, we challenged the three hardware vendors and Fujitsu Softek to manage the three arrays as a single, heterogeneous uber-SAN. Ultimately, we discovered that complete integration wasn’t possible, but that Fujitsu Softek’s virtualization approach provided the highest level of control of the combined SAN. We’re hoping SAN technology reaches a higher plateau in 2004.
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Backup Solutions
HP StorageWorks DAT 72 Tape Drive
Hewlett-Packard
Very Good (8.3)
Cost: Internal version, $1,159; external, $1,299; $24 per cartridge
Bottom Line: HP's DAT 72 Tape Drive promises to preserve current investment in Digital Data Storage at an affordable price and without dramatic changes in operating procedures. The drive is supported on a variety of platforms and connects to major SCSI controllers.
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Okapi Software ipXcelerator
Okapi Software
Very Good (8.0)
Cost: Fully configured, $19,995
Bottom Line: The ipXcelerator disk-based backup appliance makes use of iSCSI to replace tape drives with faster and more flexible disk media for backups and restores. The appliance is easy to use and manage, and it works with any backup software, but deployment requires substantial changes to settings.
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