New SMB Storage Options From Seagate And Caringo

Storage for small companies is turning out to be big! So far this week we've already seen three different announcements of new storage solutions aimed at small and midsize companies. After Netgear launched the high-density ReadyNAS 3200 yesterday, Seagate has announced three new additions to its BlackArmor line, and software provider Caringo checks in with a unique "private cloud" storage approach.The range of the releases demonstrate the wide range of storage options available to SMBs, and the increasingly attractive price points. Paul Korzeniowski has already written about Netgear's new ReadyNAS 3200, and Seagate's offerings range from a $160, 500GB portable drive called the BlackArmor PS 110 to the external BlackArmor WS 110, which costs $160 for 1TB and $310 for 2TB, on up to the NAS 220 Storage Server, which can hold up to 4TB of data to support 20 PCs. When it ships next month, this small-business-oriented device will cost $450 for the 2 TB version and $700 for the 4TB option. The NAS 220 supports two user-replacable hard drives configured with RAID Level 1 (mirroring), and includes a Gigabit Ethernet port and a pair of USB 2.0 ports.

The Seagate NAS 220

The BlackArmor line includes automated full-system backup and pre-loaded SafetyDrill+ bare-metal recovery software with AES 256-bit government-grade encryption. It can also be set up as a streaming media server.

Caringo takes a completely different approach with CloudFolder a free "private cloud" application for Windows designed to make it easy to store files and folders to a CAStor cluster. Once downloaded and configured, CloudFolder works just like a standard Windows folder, letting you drag and drop files or directories to CloudFolder for remote -- or shared -- storage. CloudFolder works with online CAStor clusters from a managed service provider, or users can download a free 4TB CAStor license that creates a virtual cluster -- or "private cloud" in Caringo's parlance -- on your own company's servers.