Interested in a couple of terabytes of networked storage? How about 4TB, or 8TB? Iomega has announced the StorCenter ix4-200D, its newest NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. It’s packed with features and aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, but I think it’ll find its way into some home-based businesses as well.
The StorCenter contains four SATA hard drives and sports two Gigabit Ethernet ports. It’s got three USB 2.0 ports for adding external drives and/or a printer, all of which are then available from the network; a feature called QuikTransfer lets you use an LCD to move files back and forth between the NAS and external drives without using a PC.
It works with Windows, OS X, and Linux PCs, comes with Retrospect backup software from parent company EMC, and is Iomega’s first business-oriented network storage device to support Apple’s Time Machine backups. It can even talk to Axis network cameras and record video from them without a PC in the equation. There are also some industrial-strength features that smallish companies are less likely to care about, including iSCSCI support and certification by VMWare for virtualization use. And even though it’s aimed at businessy use, it supports DLNA for streaming of video and audio across a network directly from its drives.
The 2TB version of the StorCenter is competitively priced at $699.99; the 4TB provides double the disk space for $899.99; the 8TB uses still-costly 2TB drives and is $1899.99. (Unlike some storage products with multiple bays, it doesn’t offer any free bays in any of its configurations.) All three versions come with a three-year warranty, and Iomega says they’re shipping now.
