Xiotech's 'Porto-SAN'

Xiotech Corp. is goin' mobile with a "portable" SAN.

Today, the company unveiled the Magnitude 3D 1000m for data center migration or disaster recovery, or to serve as a mobile field lab to collect and analyze data. For now, it is available only to government organizations. Xiotech marketing VP Mike Stolz says a small number of agencies have been using the system, mostly law enforcement groups gathering forensic evidence.

The new portable has the same clustered architecture of Xiotechs flagship Magnitude 3D SAN, but it's modified to fit a carrying case -- albeit a big, honking, 10U one (see Xiotech Gives Magnitude a Tuneup and XIOtech Fixes a Failing).

Indeed, to call the latest Magnitude "portable" is using the term loosely: The unit is 31 inches high, 27 inches wide, 36 inches deep, and weighs up to 300 pounds. [Ed. note: Start that power lifting program today!]

Figure 1: Xiotech Magnitude 3D 1000m

Two modules are included: Control modules house controllers, gateways, and software. Drive modules contain the disk drives and bays. Each system consists of at least one control and one drive module. Each control module supports up to six drive modules with a maximum of 224 drives, or 67.2 Tbytes.

The control modules include two Ethernet gateways, each with a Fibre Channel HBA and switch to connect to the drive module. The control modules also include Ethernet and Fibre channel switches to connect to servers and SANs, plus slide-out video keyboard, mouse, LCD display, and management software. Each module has its own power unit.

Stolz says Xiotech is exploring the best way to extend the new portable to wider audiences, perhaps with disaster recovery as the selling point. But that’s a good ways down the road. “Commercially, we’re taking a slow approach,” Stolz says. “This is certainly a niche play. We feel it’s a good opportunity, but not for significant volumes.”

Indeed, getting enterprises on board could be a tough sell. For now, the mobile SAN remains a pricey specialty play: Average starting configuration with 6 Tbytes costs $250,000 -- about five times the entry-level price of standard Magnitude 3D systems.

“We designed it mostly for government agencies dealing with a lot of data and collecting digital evidence,” Stolz says. “They can take data and go, or take the mobile SAN to an investigative site to protect the chain of custody." Organizations can also replicate data onto the mobile SAN, move it to another location, and attach it to new servers to migrate data.It's not surprising Xiotech developed a system for government, since that market is one of three, including healthcare and education, that take much of the company's focus (see Xiotech Regroups). What remains to be seen is whether enterprises will find a use for the new truckable SAN.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch