Storage SimplifiedStorage Simplified

Expecting storage costs to represent a growing portion of stagnant IT budgets, Network Appliance Inc. last week introduced a line of storage servers and software designed to simplify management and help companies use network-attached storage devices and storage area networks in the same IT environment. DataFabric Manager software acts as a control panel to centrally manage data stores in SANs or network-attached systems, as well as a variety of storage devices and servers. The FAS900 storage servers cost between $150,000 to $1 million, depending on capacity and software, and will help keep the company competitive by matching features offered by rivals.

Network Appliance also introduced NetApp SyncMirror data-replication software, the NetApp F825 entry-level storage device, and a 7-terabyte version of its NearStore R100 storage server.