DataCore's iSCSI bundle now aimed at virtualisation-curious shops

DataCore Software is offering 500 GB and 1 TB versions of its HA SAN Starter bundles at a lower price point to try to appeal to small shops looking to support server virtualisation projects with networked storage.

The new bundles include iSCSI targets, synchronous mirroring, thin provisioning, snapshot and asynchronous IP mirroring, and are priced starting at US$4,000 for dual 500 GB server nodes. The previous entry-level HA SAN bundles started at US$8,000 for 2 TB.

According to DataCore vice president of product and channel marketing James Price, most potential customers looking to support server virtualisation projects last year wanted smaller capacity and price points than the vendor was offering. "We weren't able to get a storage solution in that had the requisite features and didn't break the budget" for shops seeking less than 2 TB capacity, he said.

Enterprise Strategy Group founder and analyst Steve Duplessie says demand has increased over the last year for inexpensive shared storage to support server virtualisation at the low end of the market. "Ethernet-based storage software ... may eventually be the beginning of the end for proprietary storage infrastructure," Duplessie told Storage magazine in December.

Price cuts among low-end iSCSI SAN vendors are also becoming a trend. Last month, iQStor and StoneFly also sweetened deals with lowered price tags and more bundled-in features.