At last, there's a real choice in the SAN arena. Once the exclusive domain of Fibre Channel, SAN setups are now available with the less expensive, easier-to-use iSCSI interface. The result is storage that can connect easily in any Gigabit Ethernet environment.
Still, iSCSI SANs are facing the standard catch-22: Few vendors want to jump in with both feet until the technology proves to be a hit, and that won't happen until there's enough choice. As a result, many vendors are adding block-level iSCSI support to their NAS (network-attached storage) lines, but few have introduced dedicated iSCSI SANs.
We found just four vendors with iSCSI SAN modules to test: EMC, EqualLogic, LeftHand Networks and MPC Computers. The EqualLogic PS200E's combination of great features, winning performance and easy setup made it a shoe-in for Editor's Choice.