iQstor Unveils 1.2-Tbyte SATA Array For Under $10,000

Albert Saraie, director of marketing at Newbury Park, Calif.-based company, said its iQ1200 Storage System can be ordered in a base configuration with either a single or a dual controller and a recommended minimum of six 80-Gbyte Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives to take advantage of RAID Level 5 protection.

Maximum capacity of the iQ1200 is 3.75 Tbytes with up to 4 Gbytes of cache memory. It can be ordered with up to four front-end Fibre Channel connectors. All the key components are hot-swappable and redundant.

Unlike most SATA-based arrays, the iQ1200 includes on-board intelligence, which enables a variety of data management services, Saraie said. These include storage virtualization for provisioning storage or adding new servers with no downtime, non-disruptive managed snapshots, volume copy services for copying a complete data volume, monitoring of capacity so upgrades can be done without disruption, and remote replication services.

iQstor currently has about 16 channel partners in the United States and is looking for more, Saraie said. Target solution providers are those with storage experience in the small- and midsize-business market, including partners that work with small businesses or other companies interested in implementing a SAN but are turned off by the cost, he said.

The price for 1.2 Tbytes of capacity is $9,995. A fully configured unit with SAN Manager and data services software is priced at about $33,572. Shipping is expected to start within 30 days, Saraie said.