StorageTek Unveils Archiving Appliance, Targets EMC's Centera

The Louisville, Colo.-based storage vendor, which last week became the target of a $4.1 billion acquisition plan by Sun Microsystems, used the StorageWorld Conference held this week in Long Beach, Calif., to unveil the IntelliStore Intelligent Archive Solution.

IntelliStore, a Linux-based appliance, captures business data as it is archived or migrated and automatically migrates that data based on security, data protection, and regulatory requirements, said Brenda Zawatski, vice president and general manager of the company's Information Lifecycle Management Solutions group.

The appliance stores data and metadata separately. It provides in-line hashing of the files, WORM (write once, read many) storage, and audit trails of file access for security purposes. It also allows stored files to be searched using the metadata for compliance and regulatory discovery, said Zawatski.

The files are stored on a StorageTek FLX600 storage array. The FLX600, introduced last year, is the company's flagship disk-to-disk storage sub-system, and was designed mainly for backup purposes, Zawatski said.

With IntelliStore, StorageTek is aiming for the midrange compliance storage market now dominated by EMC's Centera. Zawatski said the IntelliStore offers a data throughput speed of 120 Mbytes per second, compared to 6 Mbytes/sec. for Centera. And with a price of $75,000 for a 4-Tbyte configuration vs. the recently-dropped price of $85,000 for a 2.2-Tbyte Centera, it is also more cost-effective, she said.

Dan Carson, vice president of marketing and business development at Open Systems Solutions, a Yardley, Penn.-based solution provider who works with StorageTek, said the IntelliStore give StorageTek market presence in the archiving space, despite EMC's better software integration with its Centera appliance. "But the IntelliStore's a worthy competitor," he said.

The IntelliStore will be available this month. Extra capacity for the appliance is available at a cost of $9,000 per Tbyte. During the third quarter, Zawatski expects it to get 17a-4 approval for long-term financial record archiving, at which time the company will introduce compliance archiving software.