InformationWeek

December 8, 1997

Multihost Connectivity

Vendor adds NT-based RAID storage

torage Computer Corp. this week will introduce high-end NT-based RAID storage, data access, and backup for users looking to push NT systems higher into the enterprise.

The Nashua, N.H., vendor's OmniRAID Cluster Array will let users support multiple NT clusters from a single storage pool with up to 12 direct host connections. Storage Computer says this will eliminate the need to have a storage array dedicated to each NT cluster node. The company also says that an OmniRAID cluster streamlines administration by supporting multiple levels of RAID in one system. Storage Computer previously delivered similar capabilities for Unix systems.

"This brings multihost connectivity to the NT environment," says John Webster, research director for the Yankee Group in Boston. Webster says NT server consolidation is starting to take off, and some customers want to mig rate applications from mainframes or Unix servers to NT clusters. "With OmniRAID, customers can have data center consolidation-including Unix and NT in the same storage device," he says.

One customer who chose Storage Computer likes the price-performance of its products. Bruce Simkins, VP and director of IS for BTM Capital Corp., the Boston capital leasing division of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, this week will upgrade from 110 Gbytes of data to 270 Gbytes of data. He's paying $110,000 for 160 Gbytes of data capacity. "We'd be paying at least $300,000 for the same storage from EMC," he estimates.

Simkins is dealing with a variety of types of data, including images and text with links to Lotus Notes, for a new capital leasing application. Although Storage Computer is less known and much smaller than EMC and other top storage vendors, Simkins is confident that the project will succeed. "We just got rid of all our manual files, and Storage Computer is a cost-effective solution," he says. "We expect no perf ormance or reliability issues at all, and we got good technology for a lower dollar."

Webster says Storage Computer will face lots of competition from established high-end vendors and other low-cost systems in coming months. He says EMC, Hewlett-Packard, MTI, and Sun Microsystems all will introduce new NT-based storage solutions. "The edge Storage Computer has is the degree of host independence because they require a lot less of the host processor when they attach," he says. In that area, "Storage Computer has a lead."

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