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Data Robotics means business with DroboPro

I reviewed the Drobo awhile ago and was very impressed with Data Robotics' proprietary BeyondRAID technology used in the device.

Basically, it lets you mix hard drives of any capacity together into a volume that's well-balanced between the largest possible amount of storage and maximum data redundancy. While the Drobo's performance didn't meet our expectations, its technology offers a lot of potential.

Data Robotics on Tuesday expanded that potential into an all new product for the business environment, the DroboPro.

This is the company's first foray into the business sector, and it calls the DroboPro the "business class storage array that manages itself."

Much like the Drobo, the DroboPro also allows for mixing hard drives of different capacities, and you can hot-swap any of them without having to restart or interrupt the data access. This translates into no-downtime expansion of the storage volume. Moreover, unlike the Drobo, the DroboPro now includes protection against multiple concurrent drive failures.

While the Drobo is a pure external direct attach storage (DAS) device with USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 connections, the DroboPro also includes the iSCSI interface (via a Gigabit Ethernet connection). This makes the DroboPro one of a few hybrid devices that support both network attached storage and DAS. As you need to buy the DroboShare to make the Drobo work with a network, personally, I think the addition of the network port is the most welcome feature of the DroboPro.… Read more

Netgear gets NAS server ready for business

If you're not familiar with Seagate's all newBlackArmor NAS servers, there's another network storage option for your business that's a little more commonplace.

Netgear, a networking and storage vendor known for its ReadyNAS network storage servers, decided Monday to expand this family of NAS devices to further support the business environment.

The new NAS server, called the ReadyNAS NVX, is designed for homes and small businesses. According to Netgear, the device offers double the performance of previous NV+ units and supports file and application services for Windows, Unix/Linux, and Mac systems, including Time Machine … Read more

Exclusive First Take: SheevaPlug computer makes unique NAS solution

I blogged about Marvell's SheevaPlug computer awhile ago, and Monday I got to do some exclusive hands-on testing with the first prototype of the machine.

This is a very simple and ultracompact computer that has 1.2GHz CPU, 512MB of flash memory storage, and 512MB DRAM under the hood. The only peripheral connections it supports are a USB 2.0 port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. The prototype comes with a 8GB ScanDisk thumb drive as its external storage, which makes it a very unique network-attached storage (NAS) solution.

… Read more

First hands-on with Pogoplug

The Pogoplug, which I first covered from the Consumer Electronics Show, connects any USB hard drive to your local network and also puts it on the Internet so you can share files.

As I said before, this is not a new idea, but Pogoplug is supposed to be uncommonly easy to set up and use. It's shipping today, and I've had a few days to preview the device to check out the claims.

It's a good product. It actually does combine the speed of a local drive with the convenience of Web-accessible storage, and it requires barely … Read more

BlackArmor NAS server: Seagate gets serious about network storage

I got my hands on Seagate's BlackArmor 440 NAS server and it seems different from most NAS servers I've reviewed.

The BlackArmor 440 is one of two products in the BlackArmor NAS server family that Seagate introduced last Tuesday. The other is the BlackArmor 420. The only difference between the two is the 420 ships with only two hard drives preinstalled, leaving two bays empty, while the 440 comes fully populated with four drives. Both devices are aimed at business and home office environments.

These are the first NAS servers that are truly from Seagate. The company does sell and support a few others, such as the Central Axis, but under a different brand.

The BlackArmor NAS server has a rugged and compact look for a four-bay NAS server and comes with an easy-to-use, tool-free design. It can take up to four SATA hard drives of up to 2TB of storage.

Unlike other NAS servers I've seen, the BlackArmor has four USB ports and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. The USB port can host other external USB hard drives that can be set to contain the backup of the NAS server's internal storage. According to Seagate, this allows for offsite backup rotation.

… Read more

TigerDirect.com has the Netgear RND4450 ReadyNAS NV+ 2TB Gigabit Network Attached Storage for $944.99, after $155 Instant savings.

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CompUSA.com has the Netgear RND4000 ReadyNAS NV+ Network Attached Storage (NAS) Enclosure for $609.99, after $90 Instant savings.

Save $90 on the Netgear RND4000 ReadyNAS NV+ Network Attached Storage (NAS) Enclosure from CompUSA.com >> Regular price is $699.99 >> Sale price is $609.99 >> Savings $90 (12.85732653%) >> Click here for deal

Apple Time Capsule gets mixed marks

Apple's new Time Capsule is basically the new true dual-band Airport Extreme Base Station with a hard drive permanently attached to it.

Coming in a great design, the new Time Capsule's good looks can't make up for its lackluster set of features, unfortunately.

A lot of networking functions, such as Web filtering, DDNS, and Wi-Fi-protected setup, commonly found on many other routers, are missing. With the Time Capsule, you won't have very good control of which band--2.4GHz or 5GHz--you want the router to work in, either.

Its wireless performance was also a mixed bag. In … Read more

D-Link offers high-end 425MBps 7.5TB NAS server

Casual home users might not need something like this, but the business world will definitely want the new NAS server from D-Link.

Last week, the company announced its all-new Stack DSN-1100 iSCSI SAN Array NAS server, which offers up to 7.5TB of storage and 425MBps of bandwidth. It achieves this high throughput speed thanks to IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregate Groups technology that combines the speeds of the device's four Gigabit Ethernet ports.

The NAS server include five bays, each of which can take a 3.5-inch SATA (or SATA-II) hard drive of up to 1.5TB. The … Read more