Fujitsu Plans Global Storage Push Under Eternus Brand

Fujitsu is a huge technology company with more than $50 billion in annual revenue. Despite a strong lineup of computers and storage systems, it has never been consider among the market leaders in either category. But after an internal reorganization, Fujitsu has launched a new push to raise its profile and grab a larger share of the North American storage market under the Eternus brand.

"We're the number two storage vendor in Japan behind Hitachi and ranked number eight worldwide. We're the best kept secret in the market," said Jim DeCaires, storage product marketing manager for Fujitsu America. "We've made some significant changes in recent months to eliminate product silos internally and to focus on our strengths from a systems perspective, where we can sell storage and servers and talk about solutions and systems. We intend to become more visable in the market."

Fujitsu is rebranding its storage systems under the Eternus name and introducing Eternus DX arrays for small and mid-sized businesses. The company's CentricStor virtual tape library becomes the Eternux CS and the FibreCat TX tape system becomes the Eternux TX.

The new models -- DX60 and DX80 -- replace FibreCAT systems and include 3.5-inch SAS drives and a 4-port Fibre Channel connection. The company plans to add iSCSI and SAS connectivity in the fall. "These are designed for customers who are price sensitive and include our first single-controller versions. That brings the price down to under $6,000, and it has most of the features of its brothers," said DeCaires.

The DX60 has the 4-Gbps FC port; the DX80 includes a 4- or 8-Gbps FC port. Fujitsu has added snapshots for faster backups and recovery, and has built-in encryption. They also include spin-down technology to reduce power consumption by idle disks. The systems also include several data protection features, including Data Block Guard, which is suppose to detect data corruption, and CacheProtector, which will copy the contents of the RAID controller cache to flash memory if the power goes out. Another feature, Redundant Copy, copies a disk automatically at the first sign of failure. Fujitsu also said it will support solid state drives later this year and offer low-power 2.5-inch SAS drives.

"Popularity in North America has helped propel the Eternus name into a global brand, and we are pleased to unify the Fujitsu global storage portfolio under that name," Dave Egan, senior vice president for storage at Fujitsu America, said in a statement. "At Fujitsu America, the new Eternus DX systems offer our channel partners and our SME clients data-center quality, reliability and flexibility out of the box, particularly in vertical markets such as education, financial services, government, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and telecommunications."

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