Ciphertex Offers Networked Storage Appliance

Ciphertex Data Security, a provider of data security products and services, has introduced the CX-5000NAS AES 256 Encryption Secure Network Storage Appliance. The CX-5000 is designed to provide secure network storage in virtualization environments for VMware, Citrix and Microsoft Windows where IT managers face the task of storing, sharing and using digital assets and documents for a host of tasks. 

Pricing is dependent on features and software configuration, a company release said.

The CX-5000NAS can be expanded with the company's Ranger Tower RAID systems for AES 256 Hardware Encryption as network shared storage of VMware, Citrix virtualization environments and Windows clustered servers. Comparing with traditional SAN (storage area network), the NAS is a competitive alternative with much lower setup and maintenance costs in an IP SAN, the company claimed. In addition, CX-5000NAS is certified as compatible with VMware vSphere4 (ESX 4.0 and above) and Citrix XenServer virtualization platforms, and is also compliant with Windows 2008 Failover Cluster.

"We're thrilled to show off our new CX-5000NAS system that dramatically lowers the cost for secure network storage for SMB IT organizations without sacrificing security, capacity or performance," said Jerry Kaner, president of Ciphertex. "We also believe the venues we're demonstrating the system at represent key vertical markets that are an ideal fit for CX-5000NAS. Small to medium-size businesses [SMBs] have the same compliance requirements as large enterprises when it comes to secure storage, and the CX-5000NAS provides the features and functionality for SMBs that large enterprises get from larger, more expensive systems."

Each portable CX-5000NAS AES 256 Encryption appliance can house up to five 3.5-inch or 2.5-inch SATA hard disk drives and incorporates Intel's Atom 1.8GHz dual-core processor with 1GB memory. The CX-5000NAS is capable of delivering high performance, reliability and lower power consumption during intensive data transfers. By combining a business storage center with iSCSI services, cross-platform data sharing and all-in-one server applications, the CX-5000NAS is a complete VMware Ready and Citrix Ready certified and Microsoft Hyper-V compatible shared storage solution for SMB virtualized and clustered environments.

The CX-5000NAS supports file sharing across Windows, Mac, Linux and Unix platforms. Business applications such as file server, FTP server, printer server, Web server and Windows AD (Active Directory) support are provided. Included are the dominant features, such as WebDAV, Share Folder Aggregation (also known as DFS), IPv6 and IPv4 dual-stack, Wake on LAN, schedule power on/off, HDD S.M.A.R.T, comprehensive log systems and policy-based unauthorized IP blocking.

Ciphertex will debut and demonstrate the CX-5000NAS system at the Fall Interop conference in New York this week and at the Techno Forensics Conference in Gaithersberg, Md., Oct. 25-26, 2010, according to a company release.