Xyratex Nets iSCSI OEMs

ORLANDO, FLA. -- A new enclosure from Xyratex is reportedly the basis for a series of iSCSI product announcements in various stages of release.

At the Storage Networking World trade show here yesterday, Xyratex officials said several OEMs are loading iSCSI target and initiator software onto its new HS-1235, a storage appliance that packs integral servers and disks, including SAS and/or SATA, in enclosures ready for software configuration. Xyratex has also paired with Wasabi Systems to offer OEMs an iSCSI solution based on this platform and Wasabi's software. (See Xyratex Touts ATX-Based Enclosure.)

The news is part of a planned series of announcements over the next few weeks that Xyratex spokespeople say will come from partners using their platform. Meanwhile, Xyratex won't acknowledge who it's working with. Instead, spokespeople say the gist is that the iSCSI market is starting to interest OEMs and their end-user customers, and Xyratex is getting around.

But at least one financial analyst, Paul Mansky of Citigroup Investment Research, says Intel has picked Xyratex as an OEM for an iSCSI platform for SMBs that it will unveil this week. An Intel spokesman would neither confirm nor deny Citigroup's report.

Xyratex is also behind iSCSI enclosures from Hewlett-Packard and IP SAN vendor Lefthand Networks, according to other industry sources. (See LeftHand Intros New Gear .)