Best RAID Product

CLARiiON Wins Big For Data General

Data General's CLARiiON is one of the best examples of what redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID) can and should be. We hated to return it. The CLARiiON is fully redundant; all of the drives, power supplies and controllers have backups. There's even battery backup for controller cache. This level of fault tolerance was simply nonexistent in the other products we tested.
Next, the Data General array is extremely flexible, both in its ability to appear as a logical SCSI device (allowing it to fit in nearly any operating environment) and in its ability to be configured to simultaneously use multiple RAID levels in the same array.
Finally, as a SCSI device, the CLARiiON delivers nearly the performance of the hardware-based RAID solutions we've tested. We also appreciate the extremes to which the CLARiiON documentation goes to illustrate and instruct on the importance of correct RAID configuration based upon user needs, including speed, availability and amount of data stored.
Is CLARiiON expensive? You bet. Is it worth it? We think so. Compare the acquisition cost of the CLARiiON to the value of having data available to users in situations where other devices would have failed.
Not everyone can afford a $40,000 RAID array. Luckily, there are plenty of vendors who can provide less expensive storage solutions. Storage Dimensions and MicroNet each provide RAID solutions that have nearly (at least on the PC platform) the capacity, performance and redundancy that our winner does. Granted, it is accomplished via a sophisticated RAID controller, whi ch is used by a number of vendors, but kudos to the companies for providing affordable, fault-tolerant storage solutions.

CLARiiON 1000 Disk Array, $24,900, CLARiiON Business Unit of Data
General Corp., 4400 Computer Dr., Westboro, MA 01580. (800) 67-ARRAY or (508) 898-7600; fax (508) 898-7501.

Runners-Up
SuperFlex, Storage Dimensions, 1656 McCarthy Blvd.,
Milpitas, CA 95035.
(408) 894-1331; fax (408) 944-1200.

RAIDbank Series, MicroNet Technology, 80 Technology, Irvine, CA 92718.
(714) 453-6100; fax (714) 453-6101.