When Apple released its 1U rackmount Xserve in May, the company promised a companion hardware RAID product that would be released by the end of 2002. A note recently posted on the company’s Web site indicates the product has been delayed.
“We’ve received an overwhelming thumbs up on our Xserve 1U rack-mount server from customers and reviewers since it started shipping in July and now we’re working hard to deliver Xserve’s companion RAID product in early 2003, not by the end of calendar 2002 as originally announced,” Apple’s Web site says.
The hardware RAID unit, originally demoed by Alex Grossman, Apple’s Director of Server and Storage Marketing will feature 3U height; 14 drive bays; Dual 2GB Fibre Channel on system; and redundancy of all critical components.
A recent study by Gartner Dataquest shows Apple’s servers with a 1.2 percent marketshare or 5,700 units shipped. On their own the numbers aren’t overwhelming, but consider that for the same quarter a year ago, Apple shipped only 1,525 server units — that’s a year-to-year growth of 273.8 percent, the best growth on Gartner’s list.