SMBs that want choice for their storage networks will like Boston's Igloo as it amalgamates NAS, IP SAN and FC SAN services into a single appliance. What's more, it delivers a very high storage capacity for the price and has more than a few innovative touches.
The power behind the Igloo's throne comes courtesy of Open-E's well-respected Data Storage Server (DSS) v7 software. Value looks even better as the price we've shown includes an unlimited capacity license.
The hardware is an all-Supermicro affair comprising its 2U 18-bay chassis. At first glance the front only has 12 LFF bays, but Supermicro has cunningly concealed four extra LFF bays in an internal tray which sits over the top of the motherboard.
The Igloo has two further SFF bays located at the back with dual mirrored SATA drives for the DSS software. Boston has even added a couple of 240GB SSDs inside and activated Avago's CacheCade feature for providing fast access to hot data.
Read the full review here.