Bell Micro To Distribute Apple Servers, Storage

The San Jose, Calif.-based distributor said in a statement Tuesday that it will distribute Apple's Xserve rack-mount servers and its Xserve RAID rack-mount storage arrays.

The statement, which wasn&'t attributed to a specific Bell executive, said, "Bell Microproducts, a leader in storage and server distribution, is now a U.S. distributor for Apple server solutions, including Xserve and Xserve RAID. We look forward to working with Apple to deliver innovative products and incredible support to our highly skilled customer base."

The deal makes Bell the third distributor of Apple products in the United States. Clearwater, Fla.-based Tech Data has been carrying Apple's entire line since the companies signed a distribution deal in early 2000. And Ingram Micro, which signed with Apple in 1992, is currently the Cupertino, Calif., computer maker's largest distributor, accounting for about 70 percent of Apple's products sold through distribution, said a spokesperson for the Santa Ana, Calif.-based distributor.

Executives from Bell and Apple weren&'t available for further comment.

Apple's Xserve G5 features dual 64-bit G5 processors at speeds of up to 2.3GHz in a 1U rack-mount enclosure. They run the Unix-based Mac OS X Server operating system with unlimited clients and offer up to 1.5 Tbytes of storage, PCI-X expansion, dual Gigabit Ethernet and an optical drive. List prices start at $2,999.

The Xserve RAID array fits up to 14 hot-swappable Apple Drive Modules, with a maximum of 7 Tbytes of capacity, into a 3U rack-mount enclosure. It combines Ultra ATA hard drives with a 2-Gbps Fibre Channel interface and works with Macintosh, Windows, Linux, or NetWare-based servers. The list price starts at $5,999.