Storage may not be the most exciting product to come out of Apple this year but the company today announced a major revision of its Storage Area Networking (SAN) software package.

However, Apple have confirmed it has discontinued its XServe RAID storage line. The Apple Australia Store is now selling hardware from Promise Technology.

According to Apple the update promises easier to use administration, increased support for 3rd party storage solutions, and optimisations for the Leopard operating system including support for Apple's search technology across SANS using Spotlight.

"Administrators have the ability to pre-set volume workload settings for optimal streaming of all file types, from very large files, such as uncompressed HD video to small datacentre files. Xsan 2 includes a new feature, MultiSAN, for users who need to access multiple Xsan volumes from the same workstation or server, such as in newsrooms with separate SAN volumes for production and broadcast," Apple said in a statement.

Leopard Server features, such as Mail Server, Podcast Producer, and iCal Server can now integrate with XSan 2 and support clustered file systems. The new SAN solution is available in Australia for AU$1,299 per node.