Overland Snapsan SAN Adds Modularity

Overland Storage introduced a new, modular addition to its storage area network (SAN) product line that allows the IT to pick and choose the features and specifications they want. The SnapSAN S1000 is a 2U 12-drive storage array that can be customized with single or dual 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) or 10 GbE controllers featuring either iSCSI, Fibre Channel (FC) or SAS connectivity, as well as other options.

Drive options include high-performance serial-attached storage (SAS) or serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) drives as well as what the company calls Green SATA drives, which are variable speed drives that spin down where there is no activity on the network, thus saving energy. The system is designed for block storage as opposed to file storage and runs on multiple operating systems, including Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2008 R2 as well as VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors for virtualization. The SnapSAN also offers redundancy for reliable performance with such features as backup RAID controllers, power supplies, batteries and fans.

The modular design of the SnapSAN S1000 is suited to companies that are using a broad spectrum of software applications and for whom a one-size-fits-all approach to storage wouldn't work, said Benjamin Woo, program vice president for worldwide storage systems at the research firm IDC.

The SnapSAN S1000 chassis, available now, carries a starting price of $6,495, but with disk drives, the starting price comes in at just under $7,000. Storage capacity ranges from 1.2 terabytes (TB) to 120 TB through the addition of SnapDisk E 1000 expansion units, which sell for $4,195, plus the cost of drives.

The SnapSAN S2000 supports multiple levels of RAID and, for data protection, offers read/write snapshots and support for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) for backup and replication. The SnapSAN S1000 joins the SnapSAN S2000 in Overland's line of storage area network products. The S2000 starts at $8,999.