Gateway Looks to Be Driving Force in Small Biz Storage

Gateway continued its roll-out of storage products this week with the introduction of three new drives geared to provide solid data backup for companies looking to safely store their data.

Poway, Calif.’s Gateway has been expanding its focus over the last year, offering more offering more enterprise-oriented computing equipment while simultaneously working hard to infiltrate the consumer electronics market with high-definition televisions. The company unveiled a 3-in-1 MP3 device in August and wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) products in September.

As for storage, the vendor unveiled its 850 SCSI JBOD (aka.: small computer system interface for just a bunch of disks) system and 820 Linear Tape Open (LTO) Autoloader in August, engaging a market led by such concerns as Quantum, Iomega and Maxtor. Storage drives make up a sizeable portion of the multi-billion market for backing up data on which as premium has been placed since recent natural and man-made disasters.

But the company expanded its storage hardware portfolio with the Gateway 810 external autoloader, as well as an internal Gateway DAT72 autoloader and Gateway DAT72 drive for Gateway servers. The vendor is trying to convince customers to move from DDS4 technology to DAT72 tape technology, which it said performs better and stores more.

The vendor envisions small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) will use the 810 as a rack-mounted external autoloader for data back-up. Enterprises can enhance that product with the internal DAT72 standalone drive or internal autoloader, both of which provide high-capacity tape backup, the concern said.

Consistent with the push for small form factors to accommodate small data center or server room spaces, the 810 Autoloader is 2U in size and employs DAT72 tape technology, which can accommodate more than 72 megabytes of data per cartridge. The 810 can hold up to six cartridges.

Those customers requiring more power can employ the 810 in a two-autoloader configuration, which can house 864GB of data. Each autoloader offers an independent SCSI connection, which makes it possible for each drive to be connected to a different server.

The Gateway 810 2U rack mount DAT72 autoloader including one six cartridge device retails at $2,499, with the option to add a second DAT72 autoloader for $1,499. DAT72 tapes are $39 each.

Meanwhile, those SMBs interested in consolidating their systems in an all-in-one server/storage blend can use the DAT72 internal autoloader, which can store up to six DAT72 tapes or up to 432GB of compressed data and features an SCSI interface for easy plug-and-play into two, 5 1/2 inch bays in Gateway’s 960x and 980 tower servers.

They might choose the Gateway internal DAT72 drive, which fits into Gateway’s 920, 960, 975, 980 and 995 servers, and can store up to 72MB of data on a single cartridge at more than 80MB per second.

The Gateway internal standalone DAT72 drive is priced at $899, while the internal autoloader is priced at $1,499.

Adapted from Internetnews.com.