a post asking about SAN just disappeared (complete list)

[Tycho Tycho]

So, Bob, as well as these off-the-shelf systems, when you said of your 4-year-old piece on building your own SAN, “We NEVER EVER do this anymore. There are much better solutions for the same money.” – are there better DIY solutions, or do some of these commercial systems qualify as ‘for the same money’?

I only ask because I have to embark pretty soon on a 3 edit station around shared storage build.

Most grateful for any input!

[Bob Zelin]

yes – there are plenty of systems that I have listed in my list, that will do exactly what you want. I cannot specify one system on Creative Cow – you have to do your own research, and make some phone calls to ask for prices.

the inexpensive systems will be ethernet based – not Fibre based (ethernet is cheaper). You see the list for ethernet that says Studio Network Solutions, Small Tree, Maxx Digital, etc. Start with that list.

Remember, you are buying a server, a big disk drive array, and the ethernet equipment required to make this work. A $2000 drive array from Other World Computing will not let you accomplish what you want. (however, Other World Computing did introduce a wonderful Jupiter series of drive arrays at NAB for professionals – and they don’t cost $2000).

Bob Zelin

[Mark Henning]

Tiger Technology MetaSAN also works great with 10Gig Ethernet.

[Bob Zelin]

yes it does – sorry I forgot to put that in .

Bob Zelin

[Aaron Vaughn]

ArcStorage also produces a unified storage solution, meaning we support these protocols on our storage at the same time: Ethernet, NFS/CIFS, 10gbe, iSCSI, Fiber, and Infiniband.

We build our shArc system specifically for video editing, and pricing is very competitive.

We would like to be considered for this list.

Aaron Vaughn
https://www.arcstorage.com

[John Heagy]

There’s also HyperFS from Rorke data. Formerly from Falcon Stor and before that a research group in China. It a file level SAN.

https://rorke.com/products/san-storage-area-networks/hyperdrive-file-level-san/

[Bob Zelin]

well, now I am really wrong, as I loved the Rorke solution – especially with Strawberry at NAB. I was in a rush to create this list, and I forgot important players in our market. Don’t worry – I mention Rorke in my NAB article coming up !

Bob Zelin

[Michael Todd]

Bob,
You should mention that Facilis is not only fibre, but also 1 and 10Gb ethernet.
The problem with going ethernet based is the limitation of your client connection.
A single 1Gb connection may not have enough bandwidth to supply the stream count you need.
4Gb fibre seems to be the right speed for a lot of clients. Avid’s dual connecting 1Gb ethernet (ISIS 5k) seems to produce adequate bandwidth to the client, but their overall chassis performance is slower than most. 10Gb ethernet will be great to a client, but the price is still prohibitive. When 40Gb ethernet switches are the norm and you link your client’s with 10Gb connections, then I’m all in with ethernet based SANs.