Adaptec Rolls Out New SAS/SATA Appliance

The Snap Server 650 is aimed at performance-intensive applications for a high number of concurrent users, said Dave Porter, product manager at Adaptec. Starting with a base configuration of 1.2 Tbytes using serial-attached SCSI (SAS), the Snap Server 650 scales to up to 26.4 Tbytes of SAS storage or up to 64.2 Tbytes of combined SATA and SAS storage. It features two dual-core, 64-bit AMD Opteron processors and two Gbit Ethernet interfaces with failover and balancing.

Jerry Pape, principle at Excalibur, a Big Sky, Mont.-based solution provider and Adaptec partner, said the Snap Server 650 shows how far Adaptec has grown its NAS line.

"Using two dual-core Opterons, they're pushing data at up to 1,045 Mbits per second," Pape said. "Even at line speed, it's hard to push that much data through the network. Even highly-optimized Gbit Ethernet networks will be hard-pressed to meet that speed."

Adaptec's customers benefit from the fact that its NAS appliances use the same operating system and software from its entry-level Snap Server 210 to the new 650 model, Pape added. "So customers can scale up or down without learning anything else," he said. "This is a strong point for Snap."

Adaptec on Monday also introduced 750-Gbyte SATA hard drives for its line of Snap Server NAS appliances and JBOD expansion modules, Porter said.

The Snap Servers include the ability to serve data as files or as block data using the iSCSI, NFS and CIFS protocols. They also can add capacity without impacting operations. Included with the appliance are CA eTrust antivirus software and BakBone NetVault data protection software.

With the addition of the 650, Adaptec's Snap Server line now ranges from the 210, which is suitable for workgroups of up to 50 users, to the 410, suitable for departments and other groups of up to 125 users, and to the 520 and 650, aimed at central office operations.

The 650 is available now and has a starting price of $15,695 for 1.2 Tbytes of capacity. The entire Snap line is available only through solution providers, Porter said.