Sans Digital AccuNAS AN4L ($549)

Sans Digital is announcing AccuNAS AN4L, a 4-bay iSCSI and NAS unified storage tower utilizing the latest Intel ATOM based Dual Core D510 CPU with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports.

Based on the existing popular EliteNAS system architectures that range from 1U 4-bay to 8U 50-bay rackmounts, the AN4L provides the same capability of supporting both NAS and iSCSI simultaneously. Powered by Intel ATOM D510 1.66 GHz Dual Core CPU with 1 Gigabyte of DDR II 667 MHz of memory, four virtual CPUs (Dual Core combined with Hyper-Threading) are working simultaneously to provide network performance of over 80MB/s under RAID 6. Low power consumption on the Intel ATOM based CPU also allows AN4L to generate less heat and requires less power which coincides with Sans Digital‚s commitment to contribute to a ‘greener’ earth.

Hard drive failures are protected by built-in RAID 1, 5 or 6 with four hot-swappable trays to minimize downtime in an unlikely event that one or two (RAID 6) hard drive fails. The front bezel door provides privacy while individual hard drive tray keylock provides security for unintended physical hard-disk access. The built-in event log and e-mail notification feature provide IT administrators with a wealth of information from critical errors to changes made to the system configuration. The dual Gigabit Ethernet ports provide features such as network port bonding for failover and load balancing.

The AN4L is capable of functioning as both NAS and iSCSI in a unified storage system with built-in NAS-to-NAS folder replication and snapshot features. It allows simple data backup to other AccuNAS or EliteNAS storage units while supporting virtualizations such as VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V.

"The AccuNAS AN4L is designed to meet the challenge of today‚s continuous data storage expansion need for small or medium business alike without the need to alter current network or system infrastructure," said Stanley Chan, Sans Digital’s Director of Business Development.

The AN4L is packed with high performance and redundancy features that is normally associated with large enterprise NAS products.

Listed at $549, the AN4L provides excellent value when compared to any products in its class.