Storage device vendor Network Appliance has released the first
member of a planned family of enterprise-class file servers for use
in centrally backing up data from systems at multiple sites.
The company said the NearStore R100 can take data feeds from its
own NetApp filers and from storage devices made by other vendors.
The R100 scales from 12Tbytes to 96Tbytes and provides users with a
single system for doing backups before archiving data on to
tape.
Jamie Gruener, an analyst at the Yankee Group in Boston, said the
R100 is Network Appliance's first product focused squarely on data
migration and backup. "What they're doing is offering a
consolidated backup appliance," he said.
That sets Network Appliance apart from rivals such as IBM and EMC
on product positioning, Gruener said. And the R100's base price of
$240,000 (£168,225) is much lower than typical disk storage costs
on a per-megabyte basis, he added.
Dianne McAdam, an analyst at Illuminata said Network Appliance was
able to make the R100 cheaper by using less expensive disk
technology than it puts in its flagship network- attached storage
devices.
"These are not as high-performing disks as you would see in other
NetApp filers, and the idea is that they don't have to be [because
of the focus on backup uses]," McAdam said.
Last December Network Appliance detailed its plans to field a line
of backup devices. Alongside the release of the R100, the company
has introduced several data backup and recovery software tools for
use with the new file server. Network Appliance said the R100 would
also work with storage management software developed by 10 other
vendors.
Ray Villeneuve, vice-president of marketing at Network Appliance,
said the vendor hopes to convince companies that have multiple
remote offices to off-load data backup from distributed tape
libraries.
In addition to backup applications, the R100 can be used to set up
online archives of data that do not need to be accessed frequently,
Network Appliance said. Examples include product design drawings,
historical financial data and billing records.