New Iomega 'Green' Desktop NAS Device Aimed at SMBs, Home Users

Iomega keeps cranking out desktop storage machines that off the top appear to be way underpriced. But that's simply the result of continued intense competition in the marketplace right now, and the customer gets to reap the benefits.

Back on Aug. 31, the company rolled out its StorCenter ix4-200d at price of $700 for 2 terabytes of capacity. For $1,900, users were taking home a whopping 8TB model. A year ago, Iomega came out with the 1TB StorCenter ix2. List price: $300.

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"These are market-based prices," Iomega President Jonathan Huberman told eWEEK at the time. "It's ridiculous how cheap these things are, but it is what it is. A great value for the consumer."

Iomega's latest offering to storage-seekers, announced Oct. 7, is the double-drive StorCenter ix2-200 desktop machine, which is a bit smaller than a standard loaf of bread and almost as quiet, if one believes the product manager. 

Based on parent company EMC's enterprise-type hardware, the StorCenter ix2-200 NAS machine features big-business data management functionality and advanced media serving, Product Manager Bill Hanson told eWEEK. It also has automatic disk drive spin-down [when the machine isn't being used] for energy efficiency, making it an authentic green machine. It also works with Windows or Mac OS X systems.

"We've improved the power savings, the memory power, the number of users it can take and even the quietness of it running on a desktop," Hanson said. "You can barely hear it -- you hardly know it's there."

The ix2-200, aimed at SMBs and home offices, is available in 1TB ($269), 2TB ($369) and 4TB ($679) capacities. It requires only four wizard-based steps become operational, Hanson said.

Key business features, according to Hanson, include:

• Device-to-device replication for business continuity and file recovery
• iSCSI block-level access for efficient storage utilization
• RAID 1 configurations for optimized data protection
• Windows Active Directory support
• A new front panel QuikTransfer button for easy copying of selected files
• User-replaceable hard drives
• Multiple IP security camera support
• VMware certification for virtualization installations
  

If used as a home server, StorCenter ix2-200 features:

• A DLNA-certified UPnP AV Media Server that makes the ix2-200 the central repository for serving up all movies, pictures, music and other files to any compatible device on a network
• Serves as a Time Machine target for Mac OS backups
• Built-in torrent support for file-sharing without the need for a dedicated PC
• Bluetooth capability for uploading all kinds of digital content from a smart phone
• Cooliris slide show plug-in allows for easy photo viewing
• Remote access to the ix2-200 from anywhere in the world via Web browser 

The StorCenter ix2-200 NAS appliance is now available in the Americas and Europe from retailers, VARs and IT resellers, including valued partner CDW, Hanson said.