Reviews - Channel Insider
Empowering the next generation Channel
 

Bull’s Eye Awards
Nominations Open for Channel Insider 2009 Bull’s Eye Awards
Nominations are now open for the Channel Insider 2009 Bull’s Eye Awards, which recognize excellence in customer service, technology prowess, business acumen, channel leadership, communications and community building, and innovation among vendors, solution providers, distributors and channel services companies.



Sponsored Links
  • Control VM Sprawl, What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
  • FREE Sophos Encryption Tool: Encrypt, compress and share files easily
  • LSI 6Gb/s Portfolio Expands to Include SATA+SAS HBAs
  • Reduce the cost of managing your mobile workers.
  • Find out 7 Ways to Drive Data Center Efficiency
  • SonicWALL breaks through network and email gridlock
  • Save up to 40% on calling costs with Avaya Aura™



  •  

    Iomega StorCenter ix2 Offers Ample Storage for Negligible Price

    in Reviews


    Article Rating:starstarstarstarstar / 3
    Article Views: 4965

      Table of Contents:
    1. Iomega StorCenter ix2 Offers Ample Storage for Negligible Price
    2. Shortcut to Storage

    Rate This Article:
    Add This Article To:
    Iomega StorCenter ix2 Offers Ample Storage for Negligible Price - Shortcut to Storage
    ( Page 2 of 2 )

    It's obvious that Iomega had to cut a few corners to be able to offer 2TB for just $479.99.

    Don't expect to find any fancy LCD displays, blinking LEDs or hot-swappable drives here; all you are going to get is a small blackish-grey box with a Gigabit Ethernet port and two USB ports on the back.

    Resource Library:

    To keep size down and reduce heat generated, the StorCenter uses an external power brick. Inside the unit, you'll find a pair of hard drives and just enough electronics to run a basic Linux operating system called "Lifeline," which was developed by EMC, the current owner of Iomega.

    Lifeline supports UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and DLNA for talking to assorted other devices on the network, and Lifeline offers RSA security. No surprise there; EMC also owns RSA. Users can further "expand" the StorCenter thanks to the integrated USB ports. Lifeline supports many USB devices, most notably a security camera from Axis Communications that when plugged in can turn the unit into a video server. Other supported devices include USB storage devices, USB-based Bluetooth adapters and Wi-Fi adapters.

    Although the StorCenter tries to be the jack-of-all-trades in the NAS market, it really is only the master of one, and that is backup. With Gigabit Ethernet and a bundled copy of EMC's Retrospect software, the StorCenter proves to be well suited for performing backup duty for desktop PCs and small business servers.

    Retrospect is one of the simplest backup utilities to use and lends itself well to small business environments. The combination of the StorCenter ix2 unit and Retrospect removes all excuses when it comes to backing up.

    Interestingly, iomega plans to add a new backup capability to the ix2, creating what amounts to a managed service element. The device is designed to support a future ability, which will allow it to replicate all of its data with another ix2 over the Internet. In other words, a solution provider could install one unit in a customer's office and then another unit in the customer's home office and set those units up to synchronize over the Internet. Pretty much an instant way to bring off-site backup capability to any business—just don't expect to replicate 2GB of data over the Internet on the first day. Hopefully, iomega will launch this new feature in the near future. 

    For solution providers, the StorCenter ix2 promises a quick and easy way to bring backup and extended storage to a small business. The unit offers some integration opportunities that allow solution providers to upsell other devices and services, such as video security systems and additional USB storage devices.

    While the StorCenter ix2 may fall a little short when compared with NAS units from competitors such as Buffalo Technology and Netgear, it covers the basics quite well and at a price that is hard to ignore.



     
     
    >>> More Reviews Articles          >>> More By Frank Ohlhorst
     


     


    [ci] feeds
    XML
    Add Channel News, Product Reviews, Trends and Analysis to your RSS newsreader or My Yahoo!


    HTML PLAIN TEXT

    Keep on top of news for VARs and Resellers with CI's Weekly Newsletter and Alerts.

     


    CHANNEL RESOURCE CENTER
     
     
    Enterprise Mobility Zone
    The Enterprise Mobility Zone (EMZ) blog is a tool designed to help senior IT executives discuss, create and deploy next-generation mobile strategies in their organizations.
    Go beyond yesterday's tactical approach to mobility!
     
    Build A More Efficient Data Center
    Demands are growing but budgets are not. Solve your pressing IT issues using the resources you already have. Determine which technologies can help you drive efficiencies and how they are applied. Gain a quick ROI on new initiatives
    Find out how
    Let Enterprise TechBrief do the work for you. Aggregated content, tech news, product reviews, vendor updates, how-to’s—all you need to boost your efficiencies and cut costs, all from one place.
    enterprisetechbrief.com