Cisco Systems Launches Smart Storage Line for SMBs
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The Small Business NSS 300 Series consists of two-bay, four-bay and six-bay desktop network storage units and provides small business users with a single system that comes with preinstalled business applications.
Cisco Systems, the world's largest IT networking company, has famously been
moving into the data center systems business the last couple of years. But what
a lot of people don't realize is that Cisco is also getting deeper into network
storage for small and medium-size businesses.
Cisco quietly
introduced its first storage hardware products, the NSS2000
and NSS3000 units, in spring 2009. Much
development has ensued since.
On June 9, Cisco launched its new Smart Storage desktop product line, led by
the Small Business NSS 300 Series and
designed specifically for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees.
The Small Business NSS 300 Series consists
of two-bay, four-bay and six-bay desktop network storage units and provides
small business users with a single system that comes with preinstalled business
applications. These include a user-configurable Web server with an integrated
WordPress publishing platform, along with built-in servers for user
authentication and management of the network, Cisco said.
The NSS 300 devices-which offer RAID 0, 1, 5
or 6-support Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and iSCSI and can provide up to 12TB of
capacity using 2TB drives. Higher capacities can be added as larger disk drive
capacities come into the market, Cisco said.
The devices use a browser-based interface and can be set up in minutes, Cisco
said. They feature power on/off according to preset hours and conserve
electricity with an Energy Star V-rated power adapter and hard disk drives that
spin down-but not necessarily off-while inactive.
Security features include highly secure remote and Web access. On-disk data
encryption helps protect critical business data even if the hard drives are
stolen, a business-class feature that most small business storage solutions do
not provide, Cisco said.
Pricing for the two-bay machines starts at $913 without drives and goes up to
$5,625 for six bays with 2TB drives, Cisco said. Cisco's Small Business Pro
Service is $149 for most NSS 300 Series
configurations.
Chris Preimesberger was named Editor-in-Chief of Features & Analysis at eWEEK in November 2011. Previously he served eWEEK as Senior Writer, covering a range of IT sectors that include data center systems, cloud computing, storage, virtualization, green IT, e-discovery and IT governance. His blog, Storage Station, is considered a go-to information source. Chris won a national Folio Award for magazine writing in November 2011 for a cover story on Salesforce.com and CEO-founder Marc Benioff, and he has served as a judge for the SIIA Codie Awards since 2005. In previous IT journalism, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. His diverse resume also includes: sportswriter for the Los Angeles Daily News, covering NCAA and NBA basketball, television critic for the Palo Alto Times Tribune, and Sports Information Director at Stanford University. He has served as a correspondent for The Associated Press, covering Stanford and NCAA tournament basketball, since 1983. He has covered a number of major events, including the 1984 Democratic National Convention, a Presidential press conference at the White House in 1993, the Emmy Awards (three times), two Rose Bowls, the Fiesta Bowl, several NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments, a Formula One Grand Prix auto race, a heavyweight boxing championship bout (Ali vs. Spinks, 1978), and the 1985 Super Bowl. A 1975 graduate of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Chris has won more than a dozen regional and national awards for his work. He and his wife, Rebecca, have four children and reside in Redwood City, Calif.Follow on Twitter: editingwhiz
