Overland Storage Inks Strategic Disbribution Agreement with Synnex

Overland Storage, Inc. today announced that SYNNEX Corporation, a leading business process services company, has been named a new Overland North American distribution partner. Under the terms of the strategic distribution agreement, SYNNEX will add Overland’s complete line of storage and data protection appliances to the suite of solutions that SYNNEX already offers to its more than 15,000 resellers.

The agreement reinforces Overland’s continued channel commitment while complementing the company’s focus on bringing enterprise-class capabilities to mid-range customers through affordable and reliable products that reduce backup windows, accelerate recoveries, streamline data retention and facilitate cost-effective disaster recovery. Additionally, the partnership with SYNNEX will provide added benefits for Overland channel partners seeking innovative disk-based backup and recovery, tape automation as well as SAN and NAS data protection appliances.

According to Ravi Pendekanti, vice president of worldwide marketing for Overland Storage, the distribution agreement with SYNNEX will broaden the reach of Overland’s products while providing channel partners with strong technical expertise and support. “Overland is extremely pleased to partner with SYNNEX to help its vast community of resellers solve
ever-increasing data protection problems,” he says. “Together, we can offer a diverse portfolio of solutions backed by the right level of technical support and responsive service to ensure the availability and accessibility of business-critical data.”

SYNNEX will distribute Overland’s complete product line, including REO SERIES® disk-based backup and recovery, NEO SERIES® and ARCvault™ award-winning tape automation, ULTAMUS™ RAID high-performance SAN and Snap
Server® NAS-based data protection appliances.

"Overland Storage is a well-recognized name in the storage industry, with a reputation for developing affordable, reliable, cost competitive products tailored for small, midrange and distributed enterprises," says Bob Stegner, senior vice president of marketing, North America, for SYNNEX Corporation. "We are very selective in determining which technologies are added to our arsenal of products and are delighted to give our resellers the opportunity to choose Overland for their customers’ data protection needs."

EMC vs NetApp - Bidding war for Data Domain, Inc.

Storage administrators are keeping a close eye on EMC Corp.'s and NetApp's bidding war for Data Domain Inc. and wondering how the fate of the data deduplication backup specialist will impact their shops and the storage industry in general.

While customers generally see Data Domain fitting better with NetApp than EMC, they are nervous about the competitive aspects of the industry's consolidation. Nasser Mirzai, vice president of technology at San Mateo, Calif.-based TradeBeam Inc., has products from EMC, NetApp and Data Domain. He pointed out that Data Domain's product line is more similar to NetApp's than EMC's. NetApp and Data Domain have core software they use across different hardware designs suited to different sized businesses. EMC is also perceived as more of a large enterprise company, according to Mirzai, while NetApp and Data Domain have broader appeal to midrange organizations.

"I think NetApp could keep the same energy and momentum and bring that concept to its full potential of taking a similar approach across different sizes of product," he said. "If the perception is that this is a big monster EMC product and users can't afford it, it may slow down growth and impact adoption [of Data Domain devices]."

Mirzai also said EMC has more potential conflicts of interest with Data Domain customers because of its broad product portfolio. EMC CEO Joe Tucci has already pledged that his company will cooperate with all backup software vendors if it acquires Data Domain, but Mirzai isn't sure.

"What if this means that [EMC] NetWorker support for Data Domain would be better going forward than, say, [Symantec Corp.'s] Backup Exec?" he asked. Added Mirzai: "Data Domain management has already accepted the NetApp offer. I think NetApp has a stronger chance. Then again, money talks."

Storage administrators also suspect gamesmanship in EMC's tender offer to Data Domain shareholders rather than genuine plans for the company's data deduplication backup technology. "I don't think that they [EMC] are really interested in Data Domain," said NetApp customer Reinoud Reynders, IT manager at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium. "NetApp has a real advantage in dedupe of online storage." That said, Reynders said he doesn't expect NetApp to break the bank for Data Domain. "I'm very confident that the board of NetApp will only buy it for a fair price," he said.

Even some EMC customers said they worry about the competitive implications of EMC cornering the market on data deduplication with IP from both Avamar Technologies Inc. (which EMC acquired in 2006) and Data Domain. Sean O'Mahoney, vice president and senior manager of technology services at Republic Bank in Louisville, Ky., considered Data Domain but picked EMC's Avamar, NetWorker and DL3D virtual tape library (VTL) based on a partnership with Quantum Corp.

"Data Domain did have some features we liked – it would be positive for us if EMC picks it up," O'Mahoney said. "But if NetApp gets Data Domain, the consumer wins as it's a more competitive environment."

Another EMC customer, David Grant, data center manager at Kanata, Ontario-based Mitel Networks Corp., wrote in an email to SearchStorage.com, "If I had my 'druthers' I think that I'd rather see the young guy win…I have less trust in EMC's intentions, or in [its] ability to successfully add in Data Domain's technology to their existing product lines without losing something along the way. EMC [is] maybe just too big and set in [its] ways for me to feel good about [it] being the winning bidder here."

Not every EMC customer feels that way, however. "Obviously, with our investment in mostly EMC equipment and being a Data Domain customer, it probably makes better business sense for us [for EMC to win]," said Michael Passe, storage architect at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "Generally, EMC doesn't have the strictly à la carte pricing model that NetApp follows on its NAS [network-attached storage] equipment."

But some NetApp customers find the consolidation just as worrying no matter who wins. Jim Krochmal, manager of IT at cement plant designer Polysius in Atlanta, wrote in an email to SearchStorage.com, "I prefer NetApp so I can stay in the same 'product family.' It just seems we have to declare allegiance to 'corporate families/gangs/partners' these days," he wrote. "[That means] fewer choices and less compatibility at full functionality."

Added Stan Horowitz, data management engineer at Philadelphia-based Temple University, "My concern is that the playing field in the area of data deduplication will be narrowed because both NetApp and EMC already offer competing solutions to what Data Domain offers."

Who will win the EMC, NetApp bidding war for Data Domain?

While customers consider how Data Domain's acquisition will affect them, industry analysts are debating who will win EMC Corp.'s and NetApp's bidding war for Data Domain Inc.

"Here is how this plays out," said Brian Babineau, a senior analyst at Milford, Mass.-based Enterprise Strategy Group. "NetApp counters with a richer offer, and EMC doesn't because it was just doing this to raise the price and they bow out." After a year or so spent squarely in the sights of EMC in a bitterly competitive market, Babineau said he doubts Data Domain employees would want to be integrated into EMC. "They are OK with NetApp," he said.

Backup expert W. Curtis Preston is just as certain EMC will prevail, writing in his blog, "There's no way NetApp's going to outbid EMC here. Everyone already thought that [$]1.5 [billion] was too much for NetApp to pay, given their track record with acquisitions. How are they going to outbid a [$]1.8 ALL CASH bid? …Methinks they're back to square one."

One customer who uses EMC and NetApp has a good idea who the ultimate winner will be.

"More than likely, the only clear winners will be the lawyers," said Tom Becchetti, who works with a Fortune 200 company that he requested not be identified because of corporate policy forbidding him to use its name publicly. "Data Domain stockholders won't be doing bad either."

EPA begins long process to green storage specification

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking to develop standards for making data storage devices more energy efficient, although it's probably years away from having an industry-standard green storage specification.

The EPA issued an industry letter indicating that it's taking formal steps to develop an Energy Star specification for enterprise data storage devices. Meeting the voluntary Energy Star spec would allow data storage equipment manufacturers to use the familiar Energy Star marketing label to promote product energy efficiencies. The EPA already has a similar Energy Star program for computer servers, and the server specification is expected this week.

There's a lot of talk about green storage from vendors, but customers have no formal way of comparing products to determine their power efficiency.

Andrew Fanara, program manager for the EPA's Climate Protection Partnership Division, said the agency wants to develop more standardized information to measure the energy consumption of data center products.

"The long-term Holy Grail, if there is one, is to be able to measure how efficient systems are when they're actually doing computing," Fanara said, "and then presenting that information to users and buyers in an industry-standard format."

No deadline has been set for establishing the green storage specification. Fanara said the process could take anywhere from six months to three years, depending on technical issues, industry interest and manufacturer support. Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst at Stillwater, Minn.-based StorageIO Group, said he expects the initial specification in 18 months to two years.

Challenges to data storage industry agreement
Schulz said the EPA's biggest challenge will be getting the data storage industry to agree on an initial specification and a roadmap for future green storage specifications. "In some ways, the EPA is tasked with herding cats," he said.

The specification is a blueprint that will define the energy guidelines enterprise data storage devices must meet to participate in the Energy Star program, Fanara said. Once a product meets the specification guidelines, manufacturers can voluntarily submit the product information to the EPA and the product will be added to a data storage equipment Energy Star-compliant list.

Schulz said the specification's applicability to storage users' real-world needs will be the key to its success. "The program's metrics have to be of benefit for the IT organization," Schulz said. "Otherwise, it's just an interesting exercise."

Schulz believes the initial green storage specification should focus on the amount of energy a storage device uses while working, as opposed to the device's energy use while idle.

"With the focus on efficiency optimization, boosting productivity and business economic sustainability, the issue then becomes how efficient the device is while doing work," he said.

Framework for testing and performance
Fanara said he expects the EPA to issue a framework document within 60 days, prepared by the EPA Energy Star technical staff in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Star staff will also gather input from data storage devices users, buyers and component suppliers. The framework will identify initial testing procedures, and the performance and features organizations typically look for when buying data storage.

The framework will be released to the industry for comments and feedback on identifying barriers to energy efficiencies and standardized product information.

Battling to make data centers green
Fanara said the green storage specification is part of the EPA's concentration on increasing data center energy efficiency.

He said the agency has "identified data centers as an important growing source of energy consumption, especially given its unique position as a critical component of our country's computing backbone."

The Energy Star program is developing a data center and office building benchmarking program that will rate a building's energy efficiency from one to 100. So far, the agency has benchmarked close to 100,000 office buildings nationwide, Fanara said.

To help storage managers identify and evaluate data center energy-efficiency opportunities, the U.S. Department of Energy offers the Data Center Energy Profiler (DC Pro) software tool suite, which includes two free software tools for data center managers. The DC Pro Profiling Tool diagnoses how energy is used in a data center, and provides ways to save energy and money. The DC Pro Assessment Tools conduct a more accurate assessment of data center energy-efficiency opportunities for each major data center system.

Overland Storage Reports Fiscal 2009 3rd Quarter Results

SAN DIEGO – May 4, 2009 – Overland Storage, Inc. (Nasdaq: OVRL) today reported results for its fiscal 2009 third quarter and nine-month period ended March 31, 2009.

Net revenue for the fiscal 2009 third quarter was $22.3 million, compared with $31.8 million for the same quarter a year ago. The company reported a net loss of $3.3 million, or $0.26 per share, for the fiscal 2009 third quarter compared with a net loss of $4.9 million, or $0.39 per share, for the same quarter in the prior fiscal year.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2009, the company reported net revenue of $83.5 million, compared with $98.8 million for the same period in the prior fiscal year. The net loss for the first nine months of fiscal 2009 was $15.4 million, or $1.20 per share, compared with a net loss of $16.0 million, or $1.25 per share, in the first nine months of fiscal 2008.

The company noted that net revenue for the fiscal 2009 third quarter decreased 29.9 percent from the fiscal 2008 third quarter due to lower sales in both the OEM and branded channels, reflecting economic pullbacks by customers consistent with the industry sector overall. Total OEM revenue was down 49.8 percent compared to the fiscal 2008 third quarter. This trend continues to reflect the previously announced transition by the company’s largest OEM customer to a new product from an alternate supplier. Total branded revenue declined 17.2 percent compared to branded revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2008. Sales in the Americas region were down 23.7 percent compared to the prior year third quarter and EMEA was down 30.9 percent. The APAC region, which represents a smaller overall percentage of sales, was down 42.6 percent. Partially offsetting these declines was an increase of 11.6 percent in revenue from the sales of services and spares.

Although revenue in the fiscal 2009 third quarter declined 29.9 percent from the fiscal 2008 third quarter, the gross profit of $6.3 million in the fiscal 2009 third quarter represents only a 18.2 percent drop from the $7.7 million in gross profit reported in the prior year quarter. The gross profit margin of 28.5 percent for the fiscal 2009 third quarter improved significantly over the fiscal 2008 third quarter margin of 24.2 percent.

Operating expenses of $9.6 million in the fiscal 2009 third quarter declined 22.6 percent, from $12.4 million in the fiscal 2008 third quarter, reflecting ongoing restructuring in response to revenue levels and current economic conditions. Compared to the fiscal 2008 third quarter, sales and marketing expenses declined 33.8 percent while R&D expenses declined 15.0 percent.

The total cash balance at the end of the quarter was $3.8 million, an increase of $0.8 million, from the end of the fiscal 2009 second quarter. Combined short-term and long-term debt increased $3.8 million during the fiscal 2009 third quarter, consisting of $1.5 million in additional borrowing under the Marquette financing agreement as well as a new $2.3 million secured promissory note from the company’s primary on-site service provider, which represents a conversion of amounts formerly included in accounts payable.

“Absent other dynamics, our March quarter is typically weaker than our Decemberquarter,” noted Eric Kelly, CEO of Overland Storage, Inc. “This year, global economic conditions that affected most technology companies exacerbated the seasonal weakness and resulted in lower than expected sales in both the company’s OEM and branded channels across all geographic regions.

“Our current focus at Overland is three-fold: (1) strengthening our balance sheet, (2) improving our business model and (3) delivering comprehensive solutions to address our customers’ requirements. We have made significant progress in each of these areas. At the end of March, we announced a $5 million international accounts receivable financing agreement with FGI Finance. This agreement complements the existing $9 million domestic receivable financing already in place with Marquette Commercial Finance. Additionally, we have implemented a number of changes to our business model, both internally and in conjunction with our strategic partners, which are resulting in better cash utilization and improvements to many of our key business metrics. Internally, we evaluated our team in terms of expertise and geographic location and are making adjustments to better position ourselves to execute efficiently in each discipline.

“Lastly, we have put substantial effort into our roadmap and expect to introduce a number of new, compelling solutions in the coming months,” concluded Kelly. “We firmly believe that healthy global demand exists and will continue to exist for mid-range storage, data protection and business continuity offerings that distinctively address our customers’ requirements.”

Netgear ReadyNAS Pro tops the list - CRN Test

Storage continues to be a strong growth area of information technology, and small and midsize businesses continue to be a key area of focus for vendors and solution providers alike.

So this month in our Bake-Off comparative review, we take a new look at four storage solutions that are actively sold to, and deployed in, SMB enterprises—storage that can be versatile and robust enough to meet different business needs while not requiring enterprise levels of budgeting.

Even though all the contenders fit the general category as we intended, they were anything but similar. And while there could be some crossover in the way they are used, each specializes in fulfilling a specific need.

For the purpose of this comparative review, the CRN Test Center set up each device on a subnet in our lab and used the same PC to copy files across the network, to and from the storage unit being tested. We also evaluated each unit based on its ease of setup, configuration and administration, as well as feature set and price.

Netgear ReadyNAS Pro

Network attached storage (NAS) devices started out as a relatively simple way for an enterprise to add additional shared storage space to its network. Over the past few years, though, these appliances have been shrinking in both size and price, allowing the SMB and SOHO markets to take advantage of their features. There are even a few models that target the rising home network and media center users. With the acquisition of Infrant Technologies last year, Netgear also obtained its rather successful ReadyNAS line. The popular ReadyNAS NAV+ was a second-place finisher in our NAS Bake-Off last year.

Aiming to improve, Netgear released the new six-bay, ReadyNAS Pro and the CRN Test Center found it to be a worthy addition to the line. Currently available in three Business Edition configurations—1.5 TB, 3 TB and 6 TB—our evaluation unit was model RNDP6350, which came loaded with three 500-GB hard drives. There is also a Pioneer Edition that is diskless. All the drives are hot-swappable and, with current drive capacities reaching 1.5 GB, the ReadyNAS Pro can now support up to 9 TB total.

Looking like a big brother to the four-bay NAV+ model, the ReadyNAS Pro measures 10 by 6.7 by 11.2 inches and weighs in at 16.5 pounds (without hard drives). Similar to many of today's computer cases, it has a slick, black finish and a mesh grill on the front. Running along the top edge of the front door is an easy-to-read, blue OLED display. A power switch, backup button and USB port round out the front-panel controls. By default, pressing the button will back up the "backup" share on the NAS to an external storage device plugged into the USB port below it. Rear connections include two additional USB ports, as well as two RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet jacks.

Via the administrator console, the network connections can be configured for teaming and failover, with various bonding options, including load balancing. This allows for the combining of NICs to one IP to pool banwidth and failover from one to the other if one should stop working.

The ReadyNAS Pro supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 6 as well as its own X-RAID2 (Expandable) configuration. Built-in streaming services include SqueezeCenter, iTunes, UPnP AV and Home Media, and there is also a print queue service for a USB printer.

During our tests, setting up the device was simple. After connecting to the network and powering it on, we installed the included RAIDar software, whose wizard scanned the network for attached NASes and walked us through the initial, browser-based configuration (we did, however, receive an invalid security certificate warning that had to be cleared before being allowed to continue).

As was the case with previous ReadyNAS units, reviewers found the administrator console intuitive. Shares are easily created or deleted and the same holds true for users and groups, who can also have quotas set against their accounts. Supported protocols are CIFS (SMB), NFS, AFP, FTP, HTTP/S and RSync, and each share can be customized to individually use specific protocols. In addition, shares can be configured on USB storage devices.

Recent firmware upgrades to the ReadyNAS have added iSCSI functionality and integration of the newly launched ReadyNAS Vault (powered by elephantdrive), an enterprise-class, Web-based storage service for online disaster recovery that is also managed via an Internet browser.

To measure speed, two directories with various file types were copied from the testing PC to the device and back again. The first, a 1.2-GB directory, contained 23 files and the second, a 3.2-GB directory, had 41.

Writing to the device, the 1.2-GB folder took 19 seconds and the 3.2-GB folder took 3 minutes, 4 seconds, while reading from it took 27 seconds, and 3 minutes, 10 seconds respectively. Based on Netgear's data, as well as some beta testers across the Web, the unit has been measured to reach more than 100 MBps. We're willing to concede that our local machine was probably a bottleneck in the testing and, depending on the setup, realistic speeds will probably fall somewhere in between.

Loaded with scores of other features, the ReadyNAS Pro is many things rolled into one chassis. It is an extremely powerful, relatively small device that can dynamically grow, along with the company that uses it. With prices ranging from $2,000 to $4,100, it costs more than other, comparable products, but its feature set and solid performance make it worthy of consideration.

D-Link DSN-1100-10 xStack

While a NAS is typically used to access files and, therefore, functions best when used for file serving and sharing, storage area networks (SANs) were developed with disk utilization and performance in mind. Using the SCSI protocol (as opposed to TCP on a NAS), a SAN is better used for databases, clustering and backups. Until recently, SANs traditionally operated over Fibre Channel networks.

The just-released D-Link DSN-1100-10 xStack is a SAN array storage device that uses iSCSI, a protocol that enables SCSI commands to be transmitted over IP networks. With bays for up to five 3.5-inch SATA drives, the DSN-1100's current capacity tops out at 5 TB to 7.5 TB (when using 1-TB and 1.5-TB drives respectively). As with similar devices, it is expected to be able to handle larger drives with no problem as they become available.

Comparable in size and looks to the ReadyNAS Pro, D-Link's matte-black DSN-1100 measures 10.7 by 6.6 by 10.2 inches and weighs 8.8 pounds before adding hard drives. A lockable smoky gray door houses the five hot-swappable drive bays stacked vertically. To the right of each drive are two LEDs, one indicating power to the drive and the other an activity/fault display. Reviewers were able to confirm the functionality of these lights, as one of the drives we installed actually had an issue that triggered a red LED.

Three additional LEDs line the bottom of the front panel to display power status, device readiness and the condition of an on-board battery, which can back up to 1 GB of cached memory for up to 72 hours.

With four Gigabit Ethernet ports, the device is capable of speeds up to 425 MBps when the ports are aggregated as a group. An RJ-45 management port is also located in the rear. The unit can be configured for RAID levels 0, 1, 1+0 and 5.

Setting up the DSN-1100 (and any other iSCSI device) involves a little more than a TCP- based NAS. To connect to an iSCSI device or "target," you must use an iSCSI initiator. Most servers have initiator software installed and Microsoft has included it in Windows Vista as well. Since we were using a Windows XP system, reviewers had to download the software from Microsoft's Web site.

After assigning the target's NIC(s) with IP addresses, the iSCSI initiator software is launched via the Control Panel. This requires the user to enter the IP address or DSN name of the storage device as the Target Portal. You must then connect to the Target and bind the volume. At this point, Windows responds as if a new hard drive has just been added. Via the Storage Manager, the new volume must then be initialized, partitioned and formatted. The process is actually much less involved than the description makes it seem, and anyone with Windows administration skills should be able to configure everything in about 10 minutes or so.

Configuration of the unit is relatively simple. When the IP address is entered into a Web browser, a Java-based application is loaded. After logging in for the first time, a startup wizard launches and takes the user step-by-step through the setup. Administration is just as easy, with a graphical interface allowing visual status as well as changes to the physical storage information and configuration; standard system administration functions, such as user accounts and access rights; and network settings.

As would be expected of a device designed for data movement, the DSN-1100 came in on top for three out of the four speed tests, although by not as much of a margin as we would have predicted. Writing the 1.2-GB folder to the SAN took a scant 14 seconds, but the 3.2-GB folder took 5 minutes, 3 seconds. Read times were 26 seconds, and 1 minute, 28 seconds, respectively.

The DSN-1100 is a powerful storage option for small businesses that have disk-intensive applications. It has the performance and functionality of an enterprise-level system, in a small desktop form factor. With a suggested retail price of $1,799.99, not including drives, it is also higher-priced than other storage options. But taking into consideration that it offers the functionality and performance of more expensive SANs, without the added cost of additional host adapters and infrastructure, it's a viable option for those who need it.

Sans Digital MobileNAS MN4L+ Another desktop NAS, the Sans Digital MobileNAS MN4L+, is a snazzy-looking tower that houses four hot-swappable SATA drives. Available in black and silver, the 9-pound (without drives) 7 by 8.5 by 7-inch chassis forgoes a front panel door in favor of individually locking hard-drive trays. Since the key is merely the equivalent of a straightened paper clip (which also works), the locks aren't meant to be so much of a security feature as protection against accidental removal.

With a single Gigabit Ethernet port in the back, the MN4L+ supports RAID 0, 1, 1+0, 5 and 6. Rear expansion ports for additional external hard drives include one eSATA, two USB 2.0 and one FireWire 400. As with similar devices, the MN4L+ can be configured to take scheduled snapshot backups and do realtime NAS-to-NAS folder replication. In addition, it includes an iSCSI initiator and target support.

Setup and configuration were relatively easy; after connecting the unit to power and the network, the included NAS-Finder program was launched. NAS-Finder is a menu-driven, DOS-based application that allows the user to configure the NAS with an IP address. After the IP address is assigned, the device can be managed remotely via a Web browser.

The GUI-based administration console is intuitive and allows the user to view and change the settings of the device. Easy to navigate, it consists of a frame running down the left side of the screen with approximately six category headings. Within each category are specific functions ranging from server configuration and network settings, to storage and user management and monitoring functions.

In our speed tests, the MN4L+ was a little slow with the smaller folder, but managed to hold its own with the larger one. Writing the 1.2-GB set of files took 36 seconds to the device and 32 seconds from it, while the 3.2-GB set of files took 3 minutes, 54 seconds to write and 3 minutes, 13 seconds to read.

Compared with other available storage devices, the Sans Digital storage device is not as feature-rich. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however. Instead of trying to be all things to all users, the MN4L+ was designed to function specifically as a NAS, and that is something it does fairly well. Taking a minimalistic approach, it lacks a display and status indicators, but connection and usage are fairly easy. In addition, the $659 retail price is more than half that of its competitors'. If you're looking for nothing more than a NAS, the Sans Digital MN4L+ is a terrific option.

Iomega StorCenter ix2

The acquisition of Iomega by EMC Corp. holds the promise of new, innovative storage solutions. With Iomega's status as a leader in the consumer and SOHO storage space, and EMC's entrenchment in storage for the enterprise, the latest offering from Iomega combines the strength of both companies.

A dual-drive appliance, the Iomega StorCenter ix2 is a network storage device targeted at small business. Indeed, the ix2 is user-friendly, but it also has advanced management and backup capabilities, usually reserved for NAS devices for larger organizations.

The ix2 has 1 TB or 2 TB of storage capacity, depending on the model. With a management interface comprised of vibrant, snazzy colors, and with Vista-esque icons, users can easily manage data access and sharing along with a host of other tasks. RSA encryption helps to safeguard data residing on it. Other specs include RAID 1 and Gigabit Ethernet. The drives are SATA II and the appliance is outfitted with a 400MHz processor and 128 MB of memory. There are two USB ports that allow for sharing of printers and other peripherals.

The device setup took less than 10 minutes. StorCenter is the software that comes with the appliance. StorCenter was installed on a Windows Vista machine. When the ix2 was connected to the network, it was detected via DHCP without any problems by the software. The StorCenter interface walks a user through initial configuration, such as device name and admin account setup.

Midway through testing, reviewers switched the ix2 to another subnet. The ix2 easily reconfigured itself to the network information. The StorCenter interface picked up the new network IP address without a hitch.

The ix2 does the duty of a traditional NAS device—housing data and allowing for the management of access and retrieval of that data. Yet, the ix2 does a lot of other really cool things as well. The appliance can serve as a streaming media server. It's UPnP- and DLNA-compliant, so it can work with a wide range of digital devices. There is support for Bluetooth as well; pictures from smartphones can be uploaded to the ix2.

The media streaming works wonderfully. Simply set the folder containing the media as the media folder (a scan for media files can be initiated as well.) A client running media players like Nero, Apple iTunes, Windows Media Center or any DLNA-compliant media device can receive the stream.

CRN Test Center reviewers tried to test the Bluetooth capabilities using an Aten USB wireless G/Bluetooth adapter, but it would not work with the combo network adapter. After a few failed attempts, we discovered that it will only work with a stand-alone Bluetooth dongle adapter. Still, the ability to transfer data from a Bluetooth device to the NAS is rather unique.

The ix2 can even function as a low-cost video-surveillance system. The camera supported for this device is from Axis. When the camera is active, the live camera display can be viewed remotely. You can record through the interface as well.

With the Retrospect software backup feature, there are two options for backing up data: by creating restore points for recovering data and older versions of files or a computer's entire hard drive, or by saving a copy of the most recent files and overwriting all previous versions. Other noteworthy features include support for additional external storage and power management of connected UPS devices. The management interface can be set to a variety of languages. The StorCenter ix2 mixes the price and convenience of a standard external hard drive, and adds the functionality of NAS devices costing much more. The 1-TB model lists at $299 and the 2-GB for $479. For low-cost, abundant storage, and its feature-rich goodies, the ix2 is a great deal for the small business that can live with the smaller capacities.

The bottom line: Depending on your needs, any one of these four storage devices reviewed by the CRN Test Center would be a solid choice, and easily recommended. As an all-around device though, you can't beat the Netgear ReadyNAS Pro. Its speed, intuitive design, and ease of use place it at the top of our list. With the functionality to do just about anything you can ask of it, this NAS is ready for action.

The Definitive Guide to the ReadyNAS NVX - Netgear Launches the ReadyNAS NVX

Overview

Since its introduction 3 years ago, the ReadyNAS NV and the follow-on NV+ have been the de facto choice of professionals, whether at the office or at home. They consistently garnered the highest ratings, and PC World even ranked the NV+ #8 in its “100 Best Products of 2007 Awards”. In a world where a product life cycle is measured in months, it’s very rare to find a design that lasts three years as the ReadyNAS NV product line has.

With that, the ReadyNAS team is proud to present the latest in our NV line — the ReadyNAS NVX, the fastest and most capable 4-bay desktop NAS in the world.

Identical in size to the NV+, the ReadyNAS NVX now sports a charcoal black exterior. And of course, it maintains the same chrome curved handle in the back, so you can easily move it between home and office if the need arises. In fact, much of the features that users have grown to love about the NV+ remains — the informative LCD in the front, the 4 hot-swappable disk trays behind the hidden mesh door, the backup button with a USB port at the top, and the two USB ports in the back.

What has changed is the brand-spanking new 1 GHz Intel CPU that replaces the NETGEAR IT3107 NSP that’s been the mainstay of the NV+. Add to that the 1 GB of fast SO-DIMM, and you have a system capable of hitting 85 MB/sec, more than what your typical PC or Mac can do locally, and twice as fast as the NV+.

The importance of protected storage

With everything now being stored digitally, a simple disk failure can be catastrophic, especially with the large capacity disks that are certainly the norm these days. And it really is not a matter of if but when you will have a massive data loss. Your whole family history captured on photos and videos will be lost at an instant. Your business will lose important documents and customer data and if you are lucky it will only cost your company with project delays, loss revenue and productivity. At the very worse, data loss can cost the company its livelihood. If the data is recoverable, it can be a time-consuming and expensive proposition. Ask yourself if your small or medium-size business can survive this sort of loss. Understandably, there’s a growing need for protected storage. If people don’t know what RAID (”Redundant Array of Independent Disks”) is today, they will find out soon enough. RAID is simply a way of pooling disks into one big virtual disk. If one of the disks in that pool fails, the data from the failed disk can be resurrected by the parity information kept on the surviving disks in the pool. In simple terms, this means that if one disk fails, access to your data is still intact. The cost of safe-guarding your data comes at a price of one disk capacity, regardless of whether your RAID volume consists of two drives or six drives. For example, a ReadyNAS with six 1 TB drives will have a protected capacity of 5 TB. With the price of disks being relatively cheap and data loss and recovery being so expensive, it’s really foolish not to use protected storage that RAID provides.

NVX comes with X-RAID2

The ReadyNAS NVX goes actually a step further than just RAID. It uses an ingenious technology developed by NETGEAR called X-RAID2™, a 2nd generation X-RAID technology that has been used in the existing award-winning line of ReadyNAS products. With X-RAID2, you can expand your data volume from one disk up to the max the ReadyNAS can house while the ReadyNAS is online. In a work environment, that means you don’t have to tell your staff to stop working while you’re trying to accommodate more capacity.

And once you’ve filled out all the slots and you’re near capacity, you can continue to expand by replacing out the disks one-by-one with larger disks, again, without needing to migrate your data out and back again. X-RAID2 will automatically expand when as little as two of your disks have extra capacity. Your data volume can keep growing every time you add a larger disk after that. It’s as simple as that — you don’t need a degree in RAID technology to do this. For a video demo about X-RAID2.

Other NAS may tout that they have “online” RAID expansion just like X-RAID, but take a closer look and you’ll see it’s just not quite that simple. Not only are there complex RAID migration steps involved, but they don’t mention that if you encounter a power loss during the process, you can say goodbye to your data for good.

With X-RAID2, you can turn off the power as many times as you want during the expansion, and it’ll continue where it left off.

The NVX is F-A-S-T

Mind-blazingly fast, that is. When was the last time your network drive was faster than the disk on your PC or Mac? To properly measure the performance potential in our performance lab, we had to utilize a large ramdisk or a RAID 0 with 3 striped disks on our client boxes. The local disks were clearly not fast enough to push the NVX.

With the proper setup, we clock it at 85 MB/sec (that’s megabytes per second) when reading and 78 MB/sec when writing to the ReadyNAS, and that’s with the NVX running in a protected X-RAID2 setting. With that type of speed, you can be sure it can handle a boat load of users and not suffer performance degradation like other devices would. And it means it’s a device you don’t have to throw out and replace in a couple years.

NVX at work

The ReadyNAS NVX is all business at the office, and it comes with 2 security levels suitable for environments with and without Active Directory service. Joining into an existing Active Directory environment is a snap, and within a few clicks, all existing users and groups from the directory can start using the ReadyNAS.

In addition, the NVX comes with snapshot support. Consider a snapshot as an instant point-in-time image of your data, sort of like a photo you take with a camera. Regardless of the number of files or the volume usage on the ReadyNAS, a snapshot only takes a couple of seconds, and you can continue using the ReadyNAS without interruption. If you inadvertantly change or delete files after you’ve taken a snapshot, you can always revert to the version saved in that snapshot. Just drag & drop files back from the snapshot share. This can be useful if your files were infected with a virus and you needed to revert back to a good copy.

A snapshot can also be scheduled to coincide with your backups. Typical backups can take hours, so a backup of a snapshot insures that you’re making copies of files that won’t be changing during the backup process.

On the subject of backup, the ReadyNAS comes with a built-in backup manager supporting a variety of file protocols, including CIFS, NFS, HTTP, FTP, and RSYNC. And because the backup manager runs right on the ReadyNAS, you don’t need to load a separate backup software on your client systems.

And with iSCSI support, the NVX can act as an iSCSI target LUN while still working as a NAS. This allows your Exchange or Oracle database to use a portion of your data volume for iSCSI, yet maintain the rest of the volume for file sharing. And in environments where Windows ACLs are required, iSCSI gives you that extra level of compatibility.

And the NVX allows the dual gigabit Ethernet interfaces to be bonded for optimal performance in multi-user environments and provide failover support in case of network failure.

As you can see, the ReadyNAS NVX is well-suited in business environments.

NVX in the home

With the number of computers in an average household approaching four or more, the need to consolidate storage and backup into one device, like the ReadyNAS NVX, is a definite appeal, especially if that device can provide versatility beyond just file sharing and data protection.

In the home, ReadyNAS systems are without a doubt the choice of the AV community. Not only does the NVX provides ample protected storage for all the digital media content, it can be used to stream to all popular media streaming devices, often referred to as DMAs (”Digital Media Adapters”) without the need to have you PC or Mac powered on. The trend definitely is to use low power-consuming devices like the ReadyNAS (more on this later) in place of general-purpose power-hungry desktop systems for streaming.

This means devices like PS3, XBOX 360, Logitech Squeezebox, SONOS Digital Music System, and NETGEAR’s own EVA 8000/9150 Digital Entertainer HD/Elite can all play media files straight from the NVX. Stream all you want — the NVX is designed to handle even the most demanding streaming applications with ease.

Nexsan iSeries Product Launch

The much awaited Nexsan iSeries has launched.

Nexsan iSeries offers all the benefits of a Dell/EQ and HP/LH solution without the crippling architectural defects. Although the iSCSI SAN space already has players, huge gaps exist in the market which have been powerfully addressed by the unique architecture of the Nexsan iSeries making it the clear choice for SME’s and a growing number of large enterprises looking for a low cost alternative to FC SAN.

With an all-inclusive Tier 1 feature set combined with industry leading performance, reliability and energy efficiency, Nexsan iSeries is delivering the iSCSI SAN you need…at a price to meet your budget.