Wirless NAS

I used to work in the storage industry and therefore have a latent love of storage devices. They are the backend products that nobody ever sees or hears about but are the heart and soul of all networks. Everyone knows about servers and routers but few people know about RAID storage devices. I therefore enjoyed reading about ACER's newly released wireless Network Attached Storage (NAS) system.

Acer Computer Australia has released the Aspire easyStore; an intelligent network storage solution designed for small, medium and home office network environments.

The wireless accessibility is a major differentiator from other similar products in the market. With integrated 802.11b/g the Aspire easyStore has the ability to work as a wireless access point with no network cabling required. The product also offers Gigabit LAN connection for data transfers.

While the Aspire easyStore offers a large storage capacity (up to 4TB using 4 high capacity hard drives), the device is still simple to setup and manage through an intuitive web browser based user interface.

The Aspire easyStore features integrated iTunes and UPnP AV Media Server allowing the capacity to stream photos, music and videos to UPnP AV client devices such as a Playstation and share files amongst mixed OS users. The device includes RAID control enabling protection of files, supporting levels of 0, 1, 5 and JBOD. easyBackup software enables automatic client backup and system recovery if a hard drive fails, file corruption or accidental file deletion occurs or in the event of virus attacks.

Yeah, I know it is all marketing blurb but imagine having wireless access to a 4.0 TB hard disk! Pretty cool huh! I think so. Why is this important? Well, consider the netbooks (low cost PCs). They only have limited storage available. Their advantage being they are cheap, small and easy to carry. However, you still have tons of data you want to access but plugging in a USB cable to an external hard disk is just irritating right? Well this is the answer to all your storage dreams. Hey, if I can persuade the better half I might buy one....grin....ok, not neccessarily the ACER...

Tweak Town: Acer debuts wireless NAS solution

Happy Birthday Infortrend

Infortend is a leading RAID storage solution provider. I worked there for more than two years and really enjoyed it. Anyway I just noticed that this year is their 15th anniversary. They have continued to lead the way in storage technology and continue to develop great products. Here is some blurb from their official press release:

"As we celebrate Infortrend’s 15th anniversary, we would like to thank our valued customers, trusted distributors and resellers, and dedicated employees for the success we have achieved so far," said Stone Lo, president and CEO of Infortrend Technology Inc. "For the past fifteen years, Infortrend's goal has been to design and deliver products that combine leading-edge features with value and dependability. Our customers can count on us to continue to make great strides in storage technology and offer them the best products available in the RAID market for many years to come."

Although its been four years since I left, I am still very fond of that company. They had a great staff and excellent people management and were always very understanding of my personal needs. I certainly hope they continue to go from strength to strength and that they continue to lead the way in their field.

3,500 Movies on an MP3 Player

Welcome to racetrack memory. A new memory method being researched and touted by IBM. The real benfit to this type of memory is the lack of moving parts therefor increasing the durability and the lifetime of a memory disk. One IBM fellow has said:

Aside from performance, better relability and lower prices could be on the way, too. Unlike magnetic disk drives, racetrack memory has no moving parts. Moreover, unlike flash memory, it can be endlessly rewritten with no wear and tear.

Apparently IBM researchers "have managed to store information in columns of magnetic material, or 'racetracks,' arranged either perpendicularly or horizontally on the surface of a silicon wafer." This is done "through a nanotechnology technique dubbed 'spintronics,'" that uses the "'spin' of the electron to store data."

I am personally all for crash-proof disks.

Article Link: IBM creates 'racetrack memory' for faster and cheaper storage
IBM Press Release: IBM Moves Closer to New Class of Memory

264 TB should just about be enough storage!

A RAID Storage company I used to work for, Infortrend, recently launched a 24-bay RAID array with a SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) interface, the EonStor® A24S. According to their release, string three of these RAID subsystems together, and a further 12 EonStor® S16S JBODs, fill each bay with a 1.0 TB HDD and voila, you have 264 TB. That should just about do it for me.

According to Infortrend.

"These RAID arrays are the latest in business-class storage, enabling new applications while boosting scalability and performance."

(Original Press Release: INFORTREND SHIPS FIRST 24-BAY RAID ARRAY WITH SAS INTERFACE)

Now, before you get too excited, remember these are business-class storage systems, and the price tag would be pretty hefty. And to think my current work notebook only has 30 GB!