Building Better Custom-Storage Arrays
The Addonics Storage Tower is a versatile building block for data storage solutions. Fully configured, it's ideal for SMB backup solutions and for storing uncompressed video during production. The unit gives system builders the ability to put together custom storage solutions that meet the exact needs of their customers. Customers can specify exactly how much storage they want, whether redundancy is needed and their desired performance level. Solution providers can set their own prices.
The tower measures 8.2 inches wide by 8 inches high by 12.9 inches deep and weighs about nine pounds with no drives installed. The tower will house up to four full-height optical drives or five 3.5-inch hard drives.
Addonics offers the storage tower with two choices of back panels: One version uses Universal Storage Interface Bus (USIB), which allows IDE storage devices to connect to computers via USIB connectors. The other back panel uses both USIB and eSATA connectors. The eSATA connectors permit a throughput of up to 3 Gbps when used with a SATA II controller, and they allow SATA devices to connect directly to the SATA port of a nearby computer.
The storage model ST5ESA1US has a back panel with one USIB connector and five eSATA connectors, supports up to five SATA drives and one IDE drive, and is priced at $149. The back panel on the second version of the storage tower, model ST4US, which costs $165, features four USIB connectors that allow up to four IDE devices to connect to a computer via USB 2.0 or FireWire.
Drives installed in the tower act as independent volumes, so the solution provider must decide how to configure it based on the customer's needs. The tower is compatible with all versions of Windows, Linux kernel 2.4 and higher, Mac OS 9.0 and Solaris 9.0 and higher. The storage tower can be combined with various other Addonics storage products to create removable and hot-swap drives within the tower.
