Gateway Looks to Be Driving Force in Storage

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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.’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 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 synthetic 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.