Eric Bass, director of technology at Cypress, said the Houston-based company is migrating to a high-end IP storage area network (SAN) from Intransa Inc. to replace the midrange IP 5500 model installed in January 2005. An upgrade to the new Intransa IP 7500 will cost about US$87,000, Bass said. The new functionality will be added to its existing IP 5500 system, he said. "We will not have to give up the use of any equipment."

The company first selected IP SAN technology in its search for technology to replace the older system about three years ago when it realized it would soon be outgrowing its direct-attached storage infrastructure.

At the time, Fibre Channel was "cost prohibitive," Bass said. The company began looking at IP-attached storage from Intransa, in San Jose, in January, 2005. While Bass said he considered Network Appliance Inc., in Sunnyvale, Calif., he did not look at specific products because he did not feel it was as committed as Intransa to IP SANs and its pricing and features were not as attractive.

In addition, Bass said that officials at another independent oil and gas company, which he declined to identify, recommended the Intransa product based on their experience with it. "It was very similar to what we'd be doing, and they raved about the performance," Bass said.

With the new IP SAN, the company was also able to run its industry-specific accounting software from Allen Business Resources Inc., in Houston, and its seismic software on a separate IP storage networks to maintain performance on both systems.