With new rack-mount storage products, Gateway provides life preservers for organizations drowning in data - Gateway 850 SCSI JBOD subsystem and Gateway 820 Linear Tape Open

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Sept 1, 2003

Corporate data doubles every six months, but relief is on the way for IT managers drowning in a flood of bits and bytes. Gateway, Inc. has launched two new storage products--the Gateway 850 SCSI JBOD subsystem and Gateway 820 Linear Tape Open (LTO) Autoloader--to help small--and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), institutions and enterprises preserve critical information.

The Gateway 850 and Gateway 820, both 2U in size and compatible with industry-standard racks, offer high availability, redundancy and reliability. The new products mark Gateway's entry into the storage subsystems market and provide the framework for network-attached storage (NAS) or storage area network (SAN) solutions to complement Gateway's growing systems and networking line.

"From entry-level SMBs to large enterprises, it's become increasingly important to store and back up mission-critical network data," said Scott Weinbrandt, general manager of Gateway's Systems & Networking Products Division. "Both the Gateway 850 and Gateway 820 support the increasing trend of storage outside the server and deliver superior value with high-density form factors, high-availability features and standard three-year warranties."

Built to fit any standard rack-optimized server environment, the Gateway 850 SCSI JBOD features a host of storage, reliability and expansion capabilities. Customers already deploying the Gateway 955, 975 and 995 rack-mount servers will find the Gateway 850 serves as excellent spillover storage or as a key component in a SAN or NAS for large-volume storage supporting email, database, CRM, ERP and file-sharing applications.

The Gateway 850 boasts up to 12 hot-swappable Ultra 320 SCSI hard drives, supporting up to 1.7 Terabytes of data--all in a slim, 2U chassis. The device can transfer data via single or split SCSI backplanes and single--or dual-bus mode using LSI Ultra 320 SCSI controllers. In addition, customers can deploy RAID configurations using LSI RAID adapters to achieve even greater data protection. Both LSI SCSI and RAID controllers are sold by Gateway.

With hot-swappable fans and dual 350-watt power supplies (450-watt peak), the Gateway 850 is able to keep running without missing a beat. In fact, each power supply contains its own AC input, power cord securing bail, power switch, self-contained 12-CFM fan and external LED indicators. This ultimately allows the JBOD to be powered from two separate external AC power sources, further ensuring maximum system uptime. The Gateway 850's dual redundant 80-CFM cooling fans can be set for varying speeds using included software.

Offered at a base price of $2,999, the Gateway 850 comes with three 36GB hard disk drives and built-in standard rack rails at no additional charge. The subsystem will soon support high-availability, fail-over clustering with Microsoft Cluster Server.

LTO (linear tape-open) technology continues to be a popular way for organizations to back-up data, with a 61 percent share of the overall tape back-up market, according to analyst group IDC. The Gateway 820 LTO Autoloader--the company's first unattended tape autoloader on the market--is the ideal solution for SMBs, institutions and enterprises needing a low-cost, high-capacity tape back-up solution. Designed to fit any rack, the Gateway 820 helps organizations preserve mission-critical applications such as email, transaction processing, CRM and database/data mining.

Sporting a slim 2U chassis, the Autoloader features an LTO-1 Ultrium tape drive with capacity for 100GB of uncompressed data (200 GB compressed) and scorching-fast performance of 57.6 GB/Hr uncompressed (115.2 GB/Hr compressed). The Gateway 820 also offers an eight-cartridge carousel holding LTO tape with a maximum data capacity of 800GB uncompressed (1.6TB compressed). A LVD SCSI interface allows customers to easily connect to Gateway's rack-mounted 955, 975 or 995 servers.

The Gateway 820 Autoloader is priced at $5,799. In conjunction with the launch of the 820, Gateway has forged strategic alliances with Veritas and Yosemite to create complete tape storage back-up hardware/software solutions. For organizations needing enterprise-level performance and reliability, Gateway offers Veritas Backup Exec. 9.0. For SMB customers seeking an aggressively-priced solution, Gateway offers Yosemite's Tapeware XE 7.0. Both software packages are fully supported on the Gateway 820 as well as on all Gateway servers for use with internal tape drives.%