Intel is attacking the burgeoning storage market with the release of a new platform designed to make it easy for SMBs to put together storage area networks.

The platform comes standard with a suite of software tools to manage geographically diverse storage resources and accommodate rapidly expanding storage growth, said the company. From a central console, a user can configure and manage the SAN, configure and provision volumes quickly without system downtime, make incremental copies of data volumes, and authenticate users for improved data security.

The combined hardware/software solution delivers a full-featured SAN running on an IP network rather than fibre channel. Built around a single Xeon processor, the Storage System SSR212MA supports up to 12 Serial ATA hard drives and iSCSI connectivity. Optional features can be employed to extend the capacity and performance.

 “Analysts show that data is doubling every 18 months and businesses are struggling to keep up,” said Hans Geyer, vice president and general manager, Storage Group at Intel. “Yet today’s storage solutions are often too expensive or complex for an average business to use. They need a simple, affordable solution based on a flexible set of standards-based building blocks that has the power to scale with the growing mountains of data.”