Iomega is launching new line of
performance network storage products in mid-May with the release of three
flagship products -- two desktop storage
systems and a 1U rackmount product – designed with the flexibility requested by
channel partners.
Iomega
is positioning its StorCenter PX Series of network storage products as its
top-of-the-line network storage solutions. Built on high-performance Intel
architectures and the EMC
LifeLine operating system, the PX Series is aimed at small and home businesses,
as well as distributed enterprise environments.
Designed to be easy to install and configure, the products come with advanced
business features and the option of shipping with hard drives already built in
or not, which Marc Tanguay, Iomega’s network storage general manager, said is
at the request of the company’s channel partners.
“Some
of the flexibility of the diskless model can give you, and we’re talking pretty
flexible storage options and six different bays, is we’ve also included support
for solid state disk drives,” Tanguay said. With the diskless model, partners can
install a mix of solid state and traditional hard drives for their customers.
Two
version of the desktop product are being released – one with four storage bays
and one with six. Additionally, there will be a four-bay 1U rackmount version.
The PX Series supports hard drives of up to 3TB in size, so with the six-bay
desktop model, customers can have up to 18TB of storage space in one unit.
“It’s
a wide range of configuration capabilities. The diskless model is ideal for
someone who wants to customize it and have the highest performance on SSDs,”
Tanguay said.
Iomega
isn’t forgetting about the growing trend towards virtualization. The network
storage devices support VDI. It’s both VMware- and Citrix-certified.
Additionally, the products also include access to the Iomega Personal Cloud,
which Tanguay said is an important features of the storage line. What Personal
Cloud does is enable customers to store data locally and on off-site storage
using the PX Series units. Essentially, it gives customers the ability to have
their own personal cloud without a monthly charge, he said.
“For
the customer, it’s as easy as picking which files they want to copy, which
device they’re on and which device they’re going to in a dropdown wizard box,”
Tanguay said.
Although
the PX Series is a fairly horizontal product in the SMB space, Iomega is
targeting a couple of vertical areas that need high-performance storage. The
first is video surveillance. The products support AXIS Video Hosting System
(AVHS) and can support up to 12 AXIS IP video surveillance cameras for writing
and recording high-definition video surveillance footage.
“In
the video surveillance market in small business, the standard and sweet spot is
to try to support under 20 cameras; 12 cameras is really the sweet spot for the
video surveillance market, and that’s what we’re providing with this product,”
Tanguay said.
Iomega
is also positioning the product towards the video production market, especially
considering the support of SSDs. Video production companies need Fast I/O,
which the PX Series has built into it.
“These
products are really built to move Iomega into the performance business class,
and some of the advanced features are fully virtualized-ready,
VMware-certified, Citrix-certified,” Tanguay said.
At
launch, CDW in the U.S.
will have exclusive rights to sell the product for 30 days, and then Iomega
will make it available to its distribution and reseller channels.
