Seagate unveils storage kit for small businesses

BlackArmor has four hot-swap drive bays

Seagate has introduced to the UK new storage products including network-attached storage (NAS) for small businesses and a backup appliance designed to let home users protect data across multiple PCs.

Available immediately, Seagate's Black Armor family holds up to four drives that can be configured in a number of ways, and ships with software for backing up Windows PCs. Also available immediately is Replica, a compact external drive that backs up one or more home PCs by simply being connected to each computer's USB port.

BlackArmor is aimed at smaller businesses, typically with fewer than 50 staff, according to Seagate director of product marketing Jon van Bronkhorst.

Each unit has four drive bays for up to 8 terabytes (8TB) of storage, and twin 1Gbit/s Ethernet connections. The drives are hot-swappable, supplied in pull-out cradles. Four USB ports enable external drives, printers and an uninterruptible power supply to be connected.

BlackArmor can be configured as just an array of disks or as Raid levels 0, 1, 5 or 10, but configuration is also flexible.

"You can say 'I want the first two drives to be Raid 0 and the other two to be Raid 1' if you wish," said van Bronkhorst.

BlackArmor is compatible with Microsoft Active Directory, and can be remotely accessed over the internet using Seagate's Global Access service.

Seagate also supplies backup software with licences for up to 10 users with each unit, plus SafetyDrill+ for bare metal restore capability in the event a PC fails completely.

One BlackArmor unit can also be directly connected to another, with the first acting as network storage and the second as backup for the first, van Bronkhorst said.

Prices for BlackArmor start at £679.99 for the NAS 420 model with two 1TB drives, and £999.99 for the NAS 440 with four 1TB drives.

Meanwhile, Replica provides a simple, automated backup facility for consumers or home workers.

"It's aimed at non-technical users who need protection, but don’t understand how to use backup," explained van Bronkhorst.

Replica is available in single PC and multi PC versions, with 250GB and 500GB of storage respectively. Both ship with a recovery CD that can be used to completely restore a computer, should the worst happen.

The point of Replica is simplicity, according to van Bronkhorst.

"It finds, organises and backs up all of your computer's content, including pictures and video" he said.

The multi PC version ships with a docking cradle for connection to a user's main computer, plus a second USB cable for backing up other PCs.

Replica costs £99.99 for the 250GB single PC version and £149.99 for the multi PC.