Lithium, makers of Mac-based network and device monitoring software, has announced support for the Promise VTrak in its latest shipping version.

Lithium has also announced a beta release of Lithum 5.0, to support Xsan 2, user-created modules from SNMP MIBs, and an iPhone monitoring application.

Active Storage claims that its XRAID boxes are "an evolution in storage for Apple users." With far prettier looks than other models, a Mac OS native suite of configuration and monitoring applications, and at least a commitment to this very vertical market, what we have in our midst is a very welcome alternative to what Apple thrusts upon us, which is Apple's tweaked version of Promise's Vtrack chassis.

From an economic perspective, this will mean a hopefully cheaper box for admin and integrators alike.

Apple's blessed version of the Promise VTrak have to get shipped from Promise to Apple, where they get fitted with special drives and firmware, and then are offered to sales channels with Apple's traditional razor-thin margin. The Active Storage XRAID, however, will be offered through authorized resellers, allowing much higher margins for those resellers. In the long term, this should mean that even though Active have MSRPs that mimic their Promise cousins, street prices for these boxes may be substantially lower.

It's no secret that the aim of Active is to provide a better box than Promise. The box specifications are almost identical as are their MSRPs. So the question then remains, does the XRAID hold up in real-world performance?

Well, to answer that question, some bold marketers at Active surrendered a box, early off the production line, to Meta Media and our unflinching test lab. Here then, is a summary of what we discovered in our 72 hours with the box.

Active Storage today announced a single-controller XRAID ES version of their Apple-centric storage product. There's a handy comparison on Active's site. It's quite a bit cheaper than the dual-controller version. (Note they don't recommend the ES for Xsan use.)

This mirrors (excuse the pun) a similar move by Promise back in January.

Michael Dhaliwal of District13 Computing has updated his white paper of Mac enterprise backup solutions. (via Charles Edge)

Promise has published release notes for the recent firmware upgrade. The notes are now included in the downloadable firmware package.

The notes are quite extensive. I've included them below.

Please discuss in the Promise forum.

Promise has posted the first firmware updater for their Apple-oriented E-Class RAIDs. There are no release notes yet. Victor Pacheco from Promise Tech Support has told us to expect release notes this week.

Thanks to members brianwells and d4corp for calling to our attention the updated Promise VTrak E-Class. New features include: 1TB hard drives, Bonjour support and a new aluminum look. There's also an upgradable single controller option available.

The press release is available online. You are welcome to discuss in our dedicated Promise VTrak forum.