Storage Arrays

Storage arrays from CSSi South Africa deliver the capacity, performance and resilience that modern workloads demand. From entry-level QNAP NAS units for SMB file sharing to enterprise Infortrend SAN platforms backing virtualised data centres, our 4,000+ SKU catalogue covers NAS, SAN and DAS deployments. As an authorised distributor with 26 years of storage experience, CSSi specifies, supplies and supports arrays across South Africa with ZAR pricing and a best-price guarantee.

Choosing a storage array

Decide between file (NAS, SMB/NFS), block (SAN, iSCSI/FC) or direct-attached (DAS, SAS/Thunderbolt) based on how applications consume storage. Size the array by capacity tier, drive bay count, RAID level and expected IOPS. NVMe-capable arrays suit databases and virtual desktop infrastructure; SAS hybrid arrays balance cost and performance for general workloads; high-density SATA arrays excel for backup, archive and media libraries. Confirm 10/25/100GbE or Fibre Channel options match your network fabric.

Use cases and industries

CSSi deploys storage arrays into South African data centres, fintech production environments, healthcare PACS, broadcast and post-production, mining operational technology, government records, education and SMB file servers. Common projects include VMware and Hyper-V datastores, NAKIVO backup repositories, surveillance NVR pools, media editing nameservers and ransomware-resilient immutable snapshot targets.

Why buy storage arrays from CSSi

CSSi is an authorised distributor for QNAP, Infortrend, Stardom and aligned drive brands including Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba — one supplier for the array and the drives that populate it. Reseller and DRSP partners benefit from channel pricing; end-users get pre-sales sizing, ZAR invoicing and nationwide delivery from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Should an array fail, our ISO 27001 certified recovery lab provides a safety net no marketplace can match.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between NAS, SAN and DAS?

NAS serves files over the network (SMB, NFS); SAN serves block storage (iSCSI, Fibre Channel) used by hypervisors and databases; DAS connects directly to a single host via SAS or Thunderbolt. Many environments combine all three for different workloads.

Does CSSi sell arrays with drives pre-populated?

Yes. CSSi quotes diskless chassis or fully populated arrays with vendor-certified enterprise drives matched to your workload — surveillance, NAS, mixed-use or read-intensive — configured before despatch where required.

Which RAID level should I use?

RAID 10 suits performance-critical databases; RAID 6 or RAID-Z2 protects capacity arrays against double drive failure; RAID 5 is increasingly avoided on multi-TB drives due to long rebuild windows. Our pre-sales team advises based on capacity, performance and recovery objectives.

Can CSSi recover data from a failed storage array?

Yes. CSSi’s ISO Class-100 clean rooms recover data from failed NAS, SAN and RAID arrays of any vendor, with chain-of-custody handling for forensic and POPIA-sensitive cases.