Storage solution vendor Seagate reaffirmed its commitment to the small and medium-size
business space by announcing its BlackArmor line of products designed to
protect data.
The first two products to be announced for this new family of small business
storage solutions are the Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440 and BlackArmor NAS 420
servers. Each is a four-bay NAS (network-attached storage) device, populated
with Seagate disk drives. The NAS 420 comes with two drives in a four-drive
chassis. The NAS 440 comes populated with four drives. Capacities vary from 2TB
in the NAS 420 to a maximum capacity of 8TB in the NAS 440.
“What we are trying to do is provide a total solution out of the box—hardware,
software and service,” said Naser Mgariaf, senior manager of product line
management for Seagate’s consumer solutions division. “The idea is to save SMBs
time and money by providing cost-effective, large-capacity storage that is also
easy to manage.”
The company is strongly pushing the servers’ ease of use, touting their
on-board LCD screens, which display settings and status information (including
event alerts), as well as their “intuitive management utility” for simplified
configuration and data access. “It’s almost plug-and-play. Literally, it starts
backing up automatically,” Mgariaf said.
Both servers deliver continuous and automatic backup of data on up to 50
networked computers with full-system backup and RAID options to help provide
data protection and redundancy. Customers can also access and share business
content securely from the road with an Internet browser without any extra
installs or software. Companies can invite colleagues and clients to access
select files and folders without needing an FTP site while keeping their
firewall intact and maintaining the security of their network.
“We’re going after the lower end of the SMB space with this product,” Mgariaf
said. “These SMBs don’t have full-time staff in-house, so they rely on VARs,
consultants, or, more likely, friends and family. That’s why we want to make it
easy for them to see the value immediately.”
The NAS 440 ($1,199.99 for a 4TB model) and NAS 420 ($799.99 for a 2TB model)
network servers support Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4.11 or
later. Both network servers can be purchased through channel partners and
select retailers, including Staples and Office Depot, and e-tailers like CDW
and BestBuy.com. Mgariaf said the company is also in negotiations to sell the
servers through real-world Best Buy business stores.
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