Apple Xserve RAID

Photographers wanting to put a serious hurt on their storage issues have turned to industrial-strength RAID solutions like the XServe RAID from Apple. The setup isn’t for the faint of heart (and may require a system administrator to get going), but it’ll handle the most drastic storage needs. The XServe RAID holds 14 hot-swapable drive bays—meaning they can be removed while the system is running—for up to 10.5 tb of data storage in a single unit. By spanning data, the system keeps going even if one of the drives dies, and a new unit can be added in a few seconds. With a Java-based interface, it’s even possible to monitor an XServe RAID via the Internet by checking the health of the drives, the amount of space used and configuring. It’s certainly not the smallest or the least expensive solution on the market, but it’s the most robust and dependable for the truly drive-starved.

Retail price: $5,999
Further information: www.apple.com