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February 28, 2000

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High-Capacity Storage Systems Get Cheaper
Quantum's Snap Server 4000 is a lower-priced alternative to general-purpose servers

By Martin J. Garvey

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    Storage just keeps getting cheaper. One year ago, a storage system with 100 Gbytes of capacity was a big purchase; companies now can buy such a system for less than $3,000. The Snap Server 4000, unveiled last week by Quantum Corp., will store as much as 120 Gbytes of data, or as much as 85 Gbytes of data in a RAID 5 configuration providing redundancy across four disks.

    A rack-mounted, network-attached storage device, the Snap Server 4000 provides an alternative to general-purpose servers, which cost $10,000 to $20,000 each with 100 Gbytes of storage and complex redundant disk arrays. Quantum says the system can be up and running in 15 minutes.

    Quantum says it has raised the capacity of its Snap Server systems in response to customers who said its $500, 10-Gbyte offering couldn't meet their growing storage needs. "The 4000 is in a market space of its own at this capacity and price point," says Eric Klein, an analyst at the Yankee Group. "Quantum didn't have a true data repository before, but now this viable alternative and cost-saver will change the equation." He says the device should create competition not only for Windows 2000 server vendors, but also for network-attached storage leader Network Appliance Inc.

    Window Painters Ltd. has been testing the Snap Server 4000 and likes the nonstop functionality. "We used to fill the drives on our NT servers, the system would slow down or crash, and we'd have to burn data to CDs," says Paul Murakami, production manager for the Minneapolis developer of software games. "The Snap Server is quick, easy, and reliable; it's affordable compared with the purchase of a new server, and we don't have to burn off data from drives anymore."


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