Network Appliance FAS3020

Speeds for iSCSI were even more impressive. We created a single iSCSI LUN and used a Server 2003 system with the Microsoft iSCSI initiator 1.06 installed. With the server's IQN added to the appropriate initiator group and assigned to the LUN, we were able to access the virtual disk as though it were a local drive. Rerunning Iometer returned a remarkable 110MB/sec. Adaptec's Snap Server 18000 had held the record for iSCSI speed over a single connection at 107MB/sec, but the accolade now goes to NetApp.

Along with this fine performance, NetApp's Data ONTAP OS offers a wealth of optional features that are activated simply by adding new licence keys at the web interface. Along with fail-over clustering, you can add mirroring between remote sites, a SnapLock feature for permanently securing critical business information and volume cloning.

The FAS3020 offers SMEs one of the most comprehensive network storage solutions currently available. Storage capacity can be easily expanded on-the-fly and, although you're paying for the privilege, performance across the board doesn't get any better than this.

Author: Dave Mitchell