Hello, I am familiar with Symmetrix and Clariion but I have zero knowledge of Centera.  We have Centera installed but I believe it is being used only for special types of data.  Our imaging system saves images on Centera.  I think our Exchange data is archived to Centera.

We use SAS - a statistical application the creates huge files on our Clariion/AIX systems.  These are pretty normal flat files that sit in the AIX file systems on the Clariion.  The users want to keep many of these large files for years.  We will be looking at some way to archive these off the Clariion on to more affordable storage after the files are 1 year old.  The users should be able to view the arcive files and may need to "bring them back" for use within the SAS system.

Does Centea make sense for this?  We could probably leverage our current Centeras.  Is it cost effective?  Are there better solutions?

Thanks,

Brad