Sun Microsystems this week introduced the Sun Storage 6580 and 6780 disk arrays, which pack more performance and capacity into the same footprint as previous models.

The Sun Storage 6580 Array has up to 256 disks (256TB with SATA drives), eight 4Gbps Fibre Channel host ports, 8GB of cache memory and 16 expansion trays per controller.

The larger Sun Storage 6780 Array has twice the IOPS and four times the throughput performance of the 6500 class of arrays and supports up to 448 disks (448TB), eight or 16 4Gbps Fibre Channel ports, a 16GB cache and 28 expansion trays per controller.

Both arrays support SATA and/or Fibre Channel drives and RAID 6 for data availability.

Nancy Hart, Sun’s general manager of primary arrays, says customers are taking advantage of Sun’s upgrade and trade-in programs to maximize their investments in legacy hardware.

“The trying economic times are weighing on our customers and they’re thinking about alternative buying options,” says Hart. To that end, she says, the 6780 is capable of reusing capacity already on the data center floor. Customers can physically redeploy legacy hardware behind the 6780 without migrating data or paying additional licensing fees.

“Given the budget pressures, doing more with less is imperative,” says Hart. “Customers can use the 6780 to repurpose their existing investments for an administrative fee of a couple hundred dollars.”

The 6580 is priced at $59,995, and the 6780 starts at $89,995.