IBM and EMC both made storage announcements this week, while Hewlett-Packard is preparing a slate of announcements for next week.

IBM"s new TotalStorage DS4800 disk storage server sends data traveling at a peppy 4Gbps. The DS4800 will hold up to 67TB of data and features two Ethernet ports and new failover software. The system will be available in mid-June, priced at US$54,000.

IBM also announced a new version of its SAN Volume Controller software. The SAN Volume Controller now supports up to 256 hosts and can manage high-availability clustering environments. The IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller, Version 2.1.1 will be available this week, starting at $44,500.

Meanwhile, EMC has unveiled a four-node Centera system designed to archive fixed content. The new four-node Centera is designed for the small and medium-size business (SMB) market, but includes the same management features available in the eight-node Centera servers. "Midsize enterprises are faced with the same challenges as larger organizations when it comes to effectively archiving fixed content such as e-mail and important business records," said Tom Heiser, senior vice president and general manager of EMC"s Centera division.

The four-node Centera server will be available from EMC this month with 2.2TB of capacity. The new system will be priced under $100,000,according to EMC officials.

Next week, HP is scheduled to make a wide variety of announcements at its StorageWorks user conference. The company is expected to add several new products and services to its storage line.