News
Gadzoox Releases SAN Appliance
- By Scott Bekker
- January 08, 2001
The complexity of SANs may turn away some
administrators, but today,
Gadzoox Networks Inc. is introducing a product to
simplify SAN installation and management, a SAN appliance.
The Axxess SAN Appliance combines a Gadzoox Fibre
Channel switch with an NT server into a single unit. SANSymphony, storage
virtualization management software from DataCore Software Corp, runs on the
server to perform SAN management duties.
Adminstrators use the Axxess appliance as a bridge
between servers and storage devices, connecting them together with Fibre
Channel. Users can perform a variety of SAN management tasks directly through
the server. “It gives you volume allocations on the server – you don’t need any
proprietary software,” says Rajan Vardarjan, channel development manager at
Gadzoox.
Vardarjan says that Gadzoox is targeting the
mid-to-upper market with the Axxess appliance, hoping to aid administrators
with new SAN implementations. The Axxess comes in two flavors: the 2000 model,
with an 11 port switch, and the 3000, with a 32 port switch.
Later this year, Compaq Computer Corp. plans to release
storage virtualization appliances using its proprietary VersaStor technology.
While the Compaq product may perform a similar duty to Axxess, Vardarjan says
that Axxess will be attractive to a broader range of users, since it uses
standard hardware. “You don’t need any special [Host Bus Adapters] on the
server,” he says. - Christopher McConnell
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.