The past two years have seen the value of the storage market in steady decline. This is not an indication that computer users now require less storage, however, as IT managers the world over know from their constant struggle with growing amounts of data they need to securely store and manage.
IDC estimates that revenue in the disk storage systems market dropped 23.6% year-on-year in 2002, while demand for terabyte (TB) capacity increased by 35%.
"The IDC figures may seem inconsistent, but they are actually an accurate representation of enterprises` move to storage consolidation and the tendency to make better, smarter use of storage capacity," says Andre Wollheim, HP product manager at Tarsus Technologies. "One of the solutions enterprises are examining is network-attached storage (NAS), a technology that moves data to storage subsystems attached directly to the network."
The benefits of NAS solutions are that they are flexible and provide substantial returns on investment while making for easier management. Depending on the product, a NAS can be a plug-in device allowing corporations to select best-of-breed solutions that offer low-cost implementations using existing resources.
HP, currently in the top position in the overall storage market and the fastest growing NAS vendor in Western Europe, has released HP StorageWorks NAS 2000s, the company`s first network-attached storage (NAS) device built for Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003. HP has also announced support for Microsoft`s Virtual Shadow Copy Services and Virtual Disk Services, enabling customers to more tightly integrate and manage HP storage arrays from the Windows management environment.
The system`s rack mountable, 2U modular architecture is built with HP ProLiant and StorageWorks technologies, allowing it to scale to 24 terabytes of storage in a standalone configuration.
"Designed for customers with storage and server consolidation needs at the departmental or remote offices level, NAS 2000s provides multi-protocol file and print server functionality," adds Wollheim. "In addition, it is the first solution to provide seamless storage consolidation, simplified management and cost-effective business continuity on the Windows platform."
Consolidation and simplification is on top of all data centre managers` to-do lists. The release of NAS 2000s simplifies the adoption and management of Windows 2003 as a high-end enterprise data centre solution, allowing administrators to concentrate their skills and efforts on value-added tasks critical to the organisation. HP StorageWorks NAS 2000s is immediately available from Tarsus.
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Tarsus Technologies, the value-add distribution arm of MB Technologies, is rated by suppliers and channel partners as SA`s leading hardware distributor for its stability, service ethos, product knowledge, excellent support, competitive pricing strategies and channel focus.
Distributing a wide range of products from the world`s leading manufacturers, including Acer, APC, HP, IBM, OKI, Samsung, Tally, and supplementing this range with its own brand - the Tarsus PC - Tarsus focuses strongly on long-lasting partnerships with its suppliers and resellers. In line with this philosophy, Tarsus provides a comprehensive range of services to its resellers that enables them to add value to their own offering, and assists them in growing their business.
It is this service offering that has afforded Tarsus a number of channel accolades. The latest include: Channel Executive Awards - 2002; Best Distributor Overall - 2002; Compaq`s "BDG Distributor of the Year" award - 2001 and CRN Outlook Awards - 2002.
More information about Tarsus is available at http://www.tarsus.co.za.
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