14 DAY TRIAL // Most of the people that have Internet access have discovered a lot of new possibilities for which that annoying cable can be used; many people browse the web for fun or to search for information, others go online to talk to their friends over different sorts of IM services, some play online games, and there are also people that download movies, music, software, games, and so on from the Internet.
To many, one thought never crossed their minds: how is the transfer made, where does that information come from and how it travels as electrical light impulses enter their computer. Without having to go all technical and lose some of you on the way with too many details, basically, when you download a movie, it usually comes from a server, probably a dedicated file server. But when it comes to a small website being held in some out of the way apartment, the "server" isn't all that powerful; however, when you download from a major website, the information is stored across storage clusters, tens, maybe even hundreds on servers, with storage servers having a great number of hard drives linked in RAID arrays with regular back-ups being done so that everything is preserved.
One of the major players in this domain is Intel which has announced the launch of the "industry's first 2U, 12 drive, integrated quad-core storage server: the Intel Storage Server SSR212MC2." The platform is powered by quad-core Intel Xeon 5300 series processors, with options such as one or two dual-core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors or including Serial Attached SCSI or Serial ATA hard drives.
Mike Wall, general manager, Intel Storage Group said: "Intel has made it easier and more cost-effective for storage solution providers to bring enterprise-class storage solutions to businesses of all sizes with this highly customizable system. With more than twice the performance improvement over our previous product generation, the SSR212MC2 hardware platform provides resellers and integrators a high-performing building block upon which they can build effective solutions."
The estimated price for the Intel Storage Server SSR212MC2 is $2.800 (MSRP). An optional RAID controller, Intel's SRCSAS144e for instance will set you back another $800, since the model isn't equipped with one when you buy it, taking the total cost to $3.600. However for enterprise and small business storage solutions, such as Network-Attached Storage (NAS), Storage Area Network (SAN) and application servers, this solution is what best fits the storage needs that may be.
Bala Kasiviswanathan, director of branch and storage solutions at Microsoft said: "Businesses of all sizes are seeking effective solutions to better manage the growth and complexity of data storage. The Intel SSR212MC2 with Microsoft Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 is an ideal solution for OEMs, resellers and system integrators to help both SMB and enterprise customers overcome storage challenges, lower overall costs and boost productivity."