January 26, 1998 NT Storage For L ess Unisys device offers high-availability features By Martin J. Garvey nisys Corp. this week will unveil a network-attached storage device for Windows NT that aims to provide high availability in a mid-priced package. The PrimeStor NAS2000 offloads storage from general-purpose LAN servers. It will store from 54 Gbytes to 500 Gbytes of data. Pricing starts at just under $40,000. The NAS2000 consists of two processing nodes based on Intel 200-MHz Pentium Pro processors, cluster interconnect hardware components and software, and a Fibre Channel connection. The expandable storage system dynamically provides RAID 5 and RAID 10 levels as required, as well as other availability features. For instance, the NAS2000 will protect cached Windows NT data if an out age occurs while an applica-tion is receiving data updates, Unisys says. Backups Aplenty "We always have a backup for any data that's in the cache bucket," says Tom Samulewicz, director of Unisys storage solutions. "It's high availability for the mid-server market." The NAS2000 supports multiple file protocols, including CIFS for Windows NT and NFS for Unix, and comes bundled with storage management software from CA-Cheyenne. At least one analyst says the presence of Unisys in the network attached-storage market will be a big plus for customers. "There's now a premium NAS provider," says Thomas Lahive, a senior analyst with Dataquest. "Unisys is delivering a nice, easy management interface for NT customers with the right mix of availability features and functionality. Unisys wasn't known as an independent storage provider before this." Essex County in Massachusetts is one early user of the NAS2000. This month, the county plans to make all land records available via the Web. The count y register's office is awaiting approval to put records from the 17th century online. "People log on to a PC and expect instantaneous data, including text and images," says Michael Miles, a registry official for the county. "If we ever want to change hardware or add storage, the NAS2000 is plug and play, as simple as adding a printer." Back to News in Review Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

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