network-attached storage - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• External disk storage shipments surpass 7 exabytes in Q3

  IDC today released its Disk Storage Tracker, showing steady growth in external storage systems worldwide for the third quarter.

• Everspin ships first DRAM replacement -- ST-MRAM memory

  Everspin said it was shipping samples of the industry's the first Spin-Torque Magnetoresistive RAM (ST-MRAM), a new type of non-volatile, high performance and ultra-low latency memory.

• Amazon upgrades Storage Gateway, moves out of beta

  Amazon Web Services has upgraded its Storage Gateway so it can cache data locally, and has also made it generally available.

• Hands-on: The ReadyNAS NV+ provides serious storage for prosumers

  Netgear is well known for its line-up of wireless routers, adapters, gateways and print servers, but the company has made serious inroads into the network attached storage (NAS) arena as well.

• Converging SAN traffic in the data center

  Klebanov is a technical solutions architect with Cisco Systems. He has 15 years of network industry experience. In recent years he has been closely involved with architecting data center solutions. He can be reached at klebanov@cisco.com or on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidklebanov

• Fuji Xerox to launch Dropbox-like cloud storage service for its copiers

  Fuji Xerox will launch a new cloud storage service that hooks directly into its multifunction copiers next week, allowing documents to be uploaded by scan or fax, then edited or downloaded by computer or phone.

• STEC announces high-endurance SSD

  <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/topic/19/Storage">Storage</a> vendor STEC this week announced a high-performance drive that has three times the endurance capability of previous generation MLC-based solid state drives (SSDs).

• LaCie CloudBox: Compact drive tightly integrates with Cloud storage

  The minimum "best practice" backup arrangement for your vital data is to maintain three copies of the data: the original, a local backup, and a second backup offsite. With LaCie's CloudBox NAS device, you simply back up to the ethernet-connected unit, which then automatically backs up to LaCie's own online backup service. But easy as it is, CloudBox is also expensive, capacity-challenged, and slower than average.

• Brocade once again for sale?

  Two years after attempting to find a suitable buyer, storage switch and router maker Brocade Communications may again be looking to sell itself to the highest bidder.

• Dropbox adds new file-sharing service for work groups

  Cloud storage and file-sharing service DropBox today announced a new service that allows work groups to share up to 1TB of online capacity, while also allowing IT shops to add or remove users.

• Quantum offers $5K deduplication appliance for SMBs

  Quantum this week unveiled a backup appliance for $5,139 that offers smaller businesses 8TB of capacity and data deduplication capabilities typically reserved for its higher end hardware.

• NAS shoot-out: Iomega StorCenter px6-300d

  The six-bay Iomega StorCenter px6-300d is the largest array you can get from Iomega before you venture into rack-mount servers, and it's just the kind of box you'd expect to see in a remote office or small to medium-sized business. Considering Iomega's parent EMC is a leader in the enterprise storage market, I had high expectations for this solution.

• NAS shoot-out: Netgear ReadyNAS Pro 6

  Netgear is the leader in this segment of the NAS market, and it's easy to see why. The hardware is solidly built, and the software makes it quick and simple for almost anyone to get up and running quickly. Netgear also offers a wide variety of backup solutions to fit your needs. And while many of the competitors in this playing field are taking "everything but the kitchen sink" approaches, Netgear seems to be more clearly focused on the business customer.

• NAS shoot-out: QNAP TS-659 Pro II Turbo NAS

  The QNAP Turbo NAS became my favorite during the testing. What this unit lacks in special cloud features (see the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/storage/nas-shoot-out-iomega-storcenter-px6-300d-175526">Iomega</a> and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/storage/nas-shoot-out-netgear-readynas-pro-6-175759">Netgear</a> reviews), it makes up in performance and solid functionality. My feeling is that the QNAP would be best suited to a company that has a little more tech knowledge on hand, so the staff could take advantage of all that this box can do. The hardware is solid, and setup and administration are well documented and easy to manage, but with all of the functionality that this box offers, I'm not sure I'd give it to a nontechnical business user.

• NAS shoot-out: Thecus N5200XXX

  For many InfoWorld readers, the name Thecus will not be a familiar one. This Taiwan-based corporation has been around since 2004, and I remember when it showed off its first NAS in 2005. If you go to the Thecus website, you'll find an overwhelming number of different NAS options (about 30 at my last count). If you look at the market share numbers for NAS, Thecus is usually part of "other." This is unfortunate because these NAS boxes are little powerhouses.