Gateway Looks to Be Driving Force in Storage

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

Poway, Calif.-based Gateway has been expanding its focus over the last year, 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 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 dollar market for backing up data, on which a premium has been placed since recent natural and synthetic disasters.

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

The vendor envisions small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) using the 810 as a rack-mounted external autoloader for data backup. Enterprises can enhance the product with the internal DAT72 standalone drive or internal autoloader, both of which provide high-capacity tape backup, according to Gateway.

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.

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, making it possible for each drive to be connected to a different server.

The Gateway 810 2U rack-mountable 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, SMBs interested in consolidating their systems into 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.

SMBs might also 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.

Story courtesy of Internet News.

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