Caldigit eSAN; Fibre Solution on a Budget

Caldigit have released more details of their new souped-up shared-storage fibre SAN system, the eSAN. With bandwidth fast enough to play back 8 streams of uncompressed, 10-bit, 1080i HD footage, CalDigit are boasting that their eSAN is one of the fastest shared storage systems around.

Fibre-based SANs have a reputation for being extremely expensive. Knowing that there are many facilities that can’t afford the usual kind of investment, CalDigit have priced their eSAN very competitively. The way they do this is by charging by seat, so users don't have to pay full price when only needing a limited number of seats. The amount of seats can be upgraded in the future, saving users money on the original outlay. 

A single CalDigit eSAN switch can provide shared storage for up to 12 workstations, and eSAN is scalable allowing for endless possibilities and configurations. It uses fibre optic technology to deliver the extremely fast shared storage to distances of 100m. There are many SAN software options on the market today; the eSAN makes the most of this situation and lets you choose which software you want to use.

The eSAN is a direct connection SAN solution that avoids the conversation and latency that is found in fibre-based solutions, and it's easy to set up; the HDPro storage pool plugs directly into the eSAN switch, then fibre optic technology is used to connect to individual workstations up to 100m away. The major advantage is that it works exclusively with CalDigit's HDPro. The HDPro has been a staple for fast and reliable storage for years, with extremely fast and sustained data transfer rates.

Like all CalDigit products, the CalDigit eSAN provides users with something called single vendor support; which essentially means CalDigit builds and manufactures both the HDPro as well as the CalDigit eSAN switch - so if you ever need support, there's only one vendor you need to contact. 

The exact date on which this ships is still to be confirmed, so keep any eye on the Jigsaw website or call our Broadcast team for more details.