Not exactly an affordable solution

[Bob Zelin]

Tyler –
no offense here, but a typical SAN from AVID or Apple Enterprise Group (like an XSAN system) is over $60,000 when you get done. The “cheapo” systems (which are all wonderful) from Lairdshare, EditShare, Facilis Terrablock, etc. all START at about $22,000.
So this solution that you are pricing out is CHEAP compared to anything else on the market.

Today, people say that blown out FCP systems are “too much money” at $15,000 with all the big AJA cards, drive arrays, HD monitors, etc. But just a couple of years ago, an AVID cost $60,000, and before that a linear edit system cost $250,000.

Expensive is in the eye of the beholder. The cheapest car you can buy in the US is about $12,000, but if you have no money, you look for a clunker in a used car lot. If you are a professional taxi cab driver, you need something better than a $12,000 car, and you don’t want a cab that will break down on the highway.

Aside from the SAN software, you will need a dedicated computer, a hi speed ethernet switch, and a large fast drive array that will be able to feed your multiple work stations. All of this costs money.

If you are waiting for a $3000 true SAN solution that is complete -well, you have to keep waiting.

MetaLAN client software is $295, MetaLAN server software is $495. If you are going to use MetaSAN, this requires fibre channel switches, cables, fibre host interface cards, and a Fibre channel disk drive array. All of this (along with the MetaSAN software) is still cheaper than a complete Apple XSAN package (less than half), but its still expensive. I discussed MEtaLAN, not MetaSAN, in my article.

Bob Zelin

[Chris Blair]

While researching systems early this year, we had several phone discussions and emails directly with Bernard at Tiger Technology and their service and response time was incredidle. In fact, Bernard called me several times during the process just to “check-in.”

We eventually chose an Apace vStor, but had we decided to build our own system, Tiger Technology was definitely the way to go. The prices we got from them were for MetaLan ($295 I think), which if I remember correctly is used for ethernet based solutions (which is what we were looking to set up), as opposed to fibre channel solutions. Their prices were way cheaper than the other software options out there and they actually make sense about how it all works when you talk to them.

Many other folks on this list have also raved about Tiger Technology’s pre and post sales service and support. On the cost, you have to remember they’re selling a highly specialized software application that has a limited number of potential buyers. They HAVE to charge a decent price for it to justify the research, development, programming….and most importanly, the support they provide.

People don’t think twice about paying $600 (per license) for Photoshop, $1500 (per license) for After Effects, and upwards of $5000 for apps like Digital Fusion, Maya etc. So when you’re looking at $295 per seat license for MetaLan, and $400 or so for MetaSAN, it’s really not that high a price considering what they do.

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com

[Tyler Jones]

Hey Bob!

Thanks so much for responding. Just to be clear, I’m also talking about the MetaLan software, not metasan. I can’t get in touch with anyone at Tiger, so I’ve only been able to price the software from the sites I can find that sell it. One such site is here: https://www.nlegear.com/store/product.php?productid=1272&cat=284&page=1

If you’re able to go to that link, you can see that they have metalan client priced as $395. Does Tiger sell their software directly? Also, in no way am I meaning to come across as bitter or ungrateful about the article, I really think you’ve provided an amazing resource with this article and our studio definitely got really excited after reading it. We were just very disappointed when we realized that the software involved was going to cost more than the hardware. I guess our real problem would be addressed if someone wrote a step-by-step guide of how to go from stuggling start-up to multi-million dollar operation!

[Tyler Jones]

Okay, I’d like to post here to anyone who has read this thread that Tiger has alleviated any concerns or fears I had about them and this whole project. They did take a while to get in touch with me (about 2 days), but when they did, they showed the same thing everyone keeps saying about them, amazing customer service. I don’t think they’d appreciate me saying exactly what Tiger did for us, but I’ll just say that if you get in contact with them, they’ll work with you, even on your budget requirements! So, we are going to be getting the software now, and I’ll let everyone know how our setup turns out. We’re 100% following everything described in Bob’s article and we’ve never done this before, AND we’re a small studio without a lot of big budgets, so we’re exactly the type of outfit Bob is targeting in his article.

[Bob Zelin]

patience, Tyler – I will contact you directly. You will be happy.
Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Tyler,
how do I contact you ?
bob Zelin
maxavid@cfl.rr.com

[Tyler Jones]

You could contact me here at the office. We’re in Dallas. The number is (972) 709-9400 and you just ask for me (tyler) whenever the phone is answered.

[Wyler Furgeson]

Hey Tyler,

We are the oldest SAN Management Software companies in business with the most mature Software in terms of #of Seats sold/usage. We just dramatically adjusted our pricing to accomidate the iSCSI influx so you are purchasing at the right time.

Call our Sales Rep Guy Vaughn at (916) 821-0109 and he can put together a dealer in your area for a quote which can save you thousands.

Best personal regards,

Charismac Support team

[Scott Hancock]

Tyler –
In “defense” of Bob (I know you weren’t attacking…), he did say “about $249 PER CLIENT” in the original article.
Scott

[Alec Gitelman]

Chris,

since you have done the research that I am currently trying to do maybe you could answer my questions.

We’re looking to install shared storage in our small production house – 2 dedicated FCP stations, maybe another one for freelancers coming in at crunchtime. Choosing between Tiger MetaLan and Apace vStor, a MetaLan installation would cost over $12K once you’re done (new computer, switch, software, raid). an entry level vStor is $9K and very little else needs to be done, minimal networking job. How is MetaLan more affordable, as everyone claims? What could be the advantage? I though it would also add another edit station/render node but apparently all it does is being a server.

I’m leaning towards Apace’s system, but I would like to understand the appeal of Tiger Technology solution.
Alec.