Zetera bringing new storage tech to Mac at MWSF

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Zetera to bring an affordable SAN to Macs in 2007



Quote:

etwork storage developer Zetera plans to release a Mac-based version of its PC platform storage area network (SAN) technology in the first quarter of 2007.



Zetera will preview a Mac Z-SAN enabled prototype storage device at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center Jan. 8-12. The prototype will serve as a reference design for manufacturers. It demonstrates the ability of the Z-SAN technology to enable both high performance and shared storage in either a Mac or Windows environment



For Home and Office



"Consumers and enterprise customers working on the Mac platform until now had to choose from selecting storage based on performance, scalability or price," Ryan Malone, vice president of partner and channel development for Zetera, told MacNewsWorld.



Zetera's engineers developed a solution to an idea based on using the same Internet Free How-To Guide for Small Business Web Strategies - from domain name selection to site promotion. Protocol (IP) model to access storage that Web browsers use to surf the Internet, he said.



"What we developed is very similar to fiber channel," he claimed.



Fiber channel is a protocol for server-to-storage and server-to-server networking. Zetera's approach is scaled to both consumers and businesses, Malone added.

Need Partners



Zetera is seeking partners to develop applications for its beta program, according to Malone. The company licenses its technology to product developers.



The beta phase for a Mac Z-SAN product will expand a similar storage system Zetera previously developed for the PC platform and licensed to other product manufacturers.



Zetera's file system software enables licensees to offer a shared or SAN file system as part of their Zetera-enabled Mac products, providing shared storage in the same manner as network attached storage (NAS), noted Zetera President and CEO Chuck Cortright.

How It Works



Z-SAN technology simultaneously optimizes four factors that drive the success of a network storage system. These are scalability, performance, reliability and cost.



Users of Z-SAN technology can install, configure and manage their network storage system without expensive hardware and extensive technical training, said company officials.



The Mac Z-SAN platform will offer support for both the native Mac file system and Zetera's Z-FS file system. The Z-FS file system enables full read/write sharing of data volumes between Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple and Windows machines.



Company officials said the Mac Z-SAN platform will target mixed platform businesses and those operations involved in video editing and other collaborative projects.

New Options



The industry currently offers Mac platform users a few mass storage options, Malone said. Zetera hopes that bringing its PC-based storage system to the Mac platform will provide more options.



"Our product will exceed the transfer speed of Firewire 400 and USB Latest News about USB 2.0," Malone declared. "The advantage to business customers will be a storage option that gets the same utility of a SAN but provide better control locally."



Other file system equivalents to Zetera's approach cost thousands of dollars per seat, according to Cortright. This cost factor limits their application to the high end of the market.



By making network storage more affordable and simpler to use, Zetera hopes to change network storage for the Mac platform.



Finally. Looking forward to some performance network storage.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    loulou Posts: 43member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    Zetera to bring an affordable SAN to Macs in 2007







    Finally. Looking forward to some performance network storage.



    Isn't NFS or samba an option?



    edit: or is this a SAN a networked device such as a hdd with no 'OS' to install these protocols?
  • Reply 2 of 6
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lou View Post


    Isn't NFS or samba an option?



    NFS and Samba will do the job, but some people have complained that they lose metadata or that the different file name restrictions cause headaches.



    I wish they had actual info on the cost, but showing off a prototype not do me any good. Not only that, it looks like they are trying to licence a technology, not sell a product. That means it's going to be a while before something hits the market.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    loulou Posts: 43member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    NFS and Samba will do the job, but some people have complained that they lose metadata or that the different file name restrictions cause headaches.



    I wish they had actual info on the cost, but showing off a prototype not do me any good. Not only that, it looks like they are trying to licence a technology, not sell a product. That means it's going to be a while before something hits the market.



    Not sure how you'd loose metadata mounting a NFS share from a Linux server using ext3 or even FAT32 for native win support?



    unless it delivers something radical (small network enabled hdd's which could be connected together in a raid fashion and accessed by multiple machines simultaneously, maybe even native ZFS support to pool them together like we're seeing in leopard?) i don't see the point in this, but we'll see if it doesn't turn out to be pointless.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lou View Post


    Not sure how you'd loose metadata mounting a NFS share from a Linux server using ext3 or even FAT32 for native win support?



    My understanding is that those file systems don't have the same type of metadata support as HFS+.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Well i've installed the Netgear SC101 at a friends with mixed results. I hope that the Mac platform allows for more stability. The concept is nice in that with a SAN you're not limited to to just a NAS paradigm. Not that most home users would be looking for network block based (think mailserver or database stores).



    Theoretically it should be faster than a NAS based device. I've exchanged emails a couple of time with Ryan Malone and I've been waiting for Mac support for a while. Zetera has had some high profile wins as far as huge network storage deals. I think they have a Petabyte project in the works for a school. I'm too lazy to look it up right now ..sigh.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    robmrobm Posts: 1,068member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post


    Well i've installed the Netgear SC101 at a friends with mixed results. I hope that the Mac platform allows for more stability. The concept is nice in that with a SAN you're not limited to to just a NAS paradigm. Not that most home users would be looking for network block based (think mailserver or database stores).



    Theoretically it should be faster than a NAS based device. I've exchanged emails a couple of time with Ryan Malone and I've been waiting for Mac support for a while. Zetera has had some high profile wins as far as huge network storage deals. I think they have a Petabyte project in the works for a school. I'm too lazy to look it up right now ..sigh.



    hey harrison - http://www.tiger-technology.com/ I haven't used it yet (meta san) - just wondering in what way the two products differ ?



    http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage..._nattress.html more here by Graeme Nattress.



    Any insight appreciated - tia, r
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