Cisco Systems has released the first storage router incorporating both IP (Internet protocol) and fibre channel switching, which is expected to hasten the adoption of system area networks (SANs) in small and medium-sized enterprises.
The company said its SN 5428 router could help companies migrate from direct attached storage (DAS) to a SAN environment.
Benny Chan, Cisco Asia-Pacific's business development manager for storage networking, said enterprises could use existing information technology infrastructure to deploy a SAN.
'It helps them better manage their data storage infrastructure with lower total cost of ownership of their storage solutions,' he said.
The Cisco SN 5428 is a multi-protocol storage networking platform offering two Gigabit Ethernet ports, for connecting to standard TCP/IP networks, and eight one or two-gigabit fibre channel fabric switch ports.
The company said the support for both iSCSI (Internet small computer system interface) IP and fibre channel gave customers the ability to build and manage SAN storage, even if they did not have extensive expertise in the area.