Network Appliance says it's ready to step up and take on the Big Boys of network storage: Compaq, EMC and Sun. Maybe information does want to be free, as the slogan goes. But the huge storage systems that hold the ever-rising reservoir of data sure as heck don't come cheap. Storage vendors these days are luxuriating in the seemingly insatiable thirst for data generated by the networked economy. And they're working as rapidly as they can to keep whipping out bigger disks to meet the demand. Network Appliance, which has fared well in the mid-tier storage market, this week is set to launch its biggest-ever network storage systems. The NetApp F840c can handle as much as 12 terabytes -- 12 trillion bytes of information -- in a single system, which is more than eight times the capacity of the company's current highest-end product. The other model in the family, the F840, is available with up to 6 terabytes of capacity. Big leagues

With the F840 line, due to start shipping this month, Network Appliance sees itself finally pulling into the big leagues with the likes of Compaq Computer, EMC, IBM and Sun Microsystems, some of the champs in the high-end storage ring. "There are a number of customer accounts that we weren't even asked to compete for because it was perceived we didn't have the scale," said Paul Hansen, Network Appliance's senior director of product marketing. "These new products bring us into a whole new realm of data centre applications with very large data topologies." To achieve new capacity thresholds, the F840 products use Intel's 733MHz Pentium III chips, replacing the Digital Alpha processors that have powered its existing generation of storage appliances, according to Hansen. The systems also have an upgraded version of Network Appliance's software, Data ONTAP 6.0, which the company said provides 50 percent improvement in response time and adds new high-availability features. The large storage systems are pricey: The F840c starts at US$318,900. Network Appliance's new "filers," as it calls them, fall into the category of network-attached storage, one of the fastest-growing segments in the storage industry. US$4.8 billion market seen Sales of high-end network-attached storage systems for enterprises and service providers are projected to grow from US$964 million this year to US$4.8 billion by 2003, according to a GartnerGroup report. Network-attached storage systems have swelled in popularity because they're typically quicker to deploy than server-attached storage devices and can simplify data management by consolidating storage. "Direct server-attached storage can't possibly scale, because every time you have to add storage you have to add another server," Hansen said. So, with demand for network-attached storage systems running hot, Network Appliance is introducing its mammoth storage filers in the face of ferocious competition from larger rivals like EMC and Sun. Sun, which has largely focused on selling storage systems for its servers, is bearing down on the high-end network-attached storage space. In June, Sun debuted its StorEdge N8200, a network-attached storage system that provides between 200GB and 400GB of capacity. Sun expects to ship two additional models by the end of the year: the 8400, which will provide 2 terabytes of capacity, and the 8600, which will supposedly scale up to 10 terabytes. Randal Sagrillo, director of Internet storage at Sun's Network Storage division, said Sun brought out the line of turnkey network-attached storage appliances because customers needed a faster and easier way to throw gobs of storage into their networks. "The general trend is people saying, 'I need to get something in now. I need to be up and running today,' " he said. "It's the dotcom mentality."

EMC stepping up
EMC also has stepped up development of its Celerra network-attached storage file servers. The company, which said it saw sales of its network-attached storage systems grow tenfold in the first half of 2000 compared to the previous year, announced earlier this year that it has increased system performance across the Celerra line more than 60 percent. According to EMC, the enhanced version of the Celerra was able to handle more than 100,000 input/output operations per second on a data-transfer test by Standard Performance Evaluation. But EMC still turns up its nose at a strictly network-attached storage-oriented architecture. The company said it can mix and match higher-performance storage area network systems with NAS better than anyone else in the business. ENDS

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