IBM launches small business storage system

IBM has introduced the DS4700 Express, a high-bandwidth storage system that promises performance of four gigabits per second, from front to back end. The announcement on Tuesday came on the heels of EMC's launch of its latest midrange Clariion CX3, also aimed at small and midsized businesses.

The EMC systems can scale to 59 terabytes, with an entry-level system offering 365GB of storage for $27,000. But while the CX3 comes with 2Gbps performance as standard, the new IBM system is 4Gbps and costs $19,449. The DS4700 includes 16 disk drive bays inside the controller and up to eight host ports.

Colin Barker reported for ZDNet UK in London. To read the full story, click here.

[billeth0]

small business??

Did I miss the definition of small business?

We are a firm of about 60 people and have storage issues with 2TB of storage space spread out across various servers.

365GB of storage for $27,000

That is simply not possible for this company, thats like 1/3 the entire IT budget a year not counting salaries.

Is it me or are server makers totally missing the fact that small companies can't buy these things and even if we could 365GB wouldn't hold what we have now. Let alone allow for growth. Don't they understand that data adds up fast and we don't even keep archives on the servers.

[pbodifee]

DS4700 not for small business

The DS4700 is certainly not targeted for small business. It is meant to be used in fairly large shops to hold data for many big windows and unix/linux servers. The $/GB ratio becomes more favorable if one starts using this storage server with a fairly large amount of capacity. If you need to store 365 GB of data you can buy a single disk....