NAS Ready For Small Biz

The ReadyNAS NV crams as much as 2 Tbytes of storage into an ultra- compact NAS unit, measuring just 8 x 5 x 9 inches. While in some cases, small size means reduced speed, Infrant addressed that concern by using speedy SATA hard drives, a Gigabit Ethernet connection and a proprietary high-speed NAS CPU.

The unit is available in four configurations. With an MSRP of $649, the entry-level configuration is shipped without hard drives, allowing solution providers to define their own capacities. Infrant also offers configurations in capacities of 1 Tbyte, 1.6 Tbytes and 2 Tbytes, with MSRPs of $1,299, $1,799 and $2,299, respectively.

Although Infrant&'s NAS box is designed for small businesses and home offices, it sports several enterprise-class features. For instance, the four drives are hot-swappable and are mounted in removable SATA trays, allowing users to quickly reconfigure or replace drives.

In addition, the unit features 256 Mbytes of PC2700 high-speed RAM for improved performance. RAID levels 0, 1 and 5 are supported, as is X-RAID (a proprietary technology that allows new drives to increase volume size automatically). X-RAID proves to make storage expansion plug-and-play simple and RAID configuration completely automatic. For speed, all RAID modes are hardware-based, which eliminates the latency found with software-based RAID schemes.

Network compatibility is ensured by the unit&'s support of CIFS/SMB for Windows networking, AFP 3.1 for Macintosh support, and NFS V1/V2 for Linux and Unix compatibility. Those networking support schemes, when combined with Gigabit Ethernet performance, make the unit an inexpensive storage option for even larger, enterprise-class networks.

Another notable feature is an integrated media server that allows the unit to seamlessly stream media-centric material to multiple concurrent clients. The unit also can multistream HD video content, along with traditional audio and video media files, which makes the unit suitable as an add-on to a Web server that provides streaming content. The media server capability supports UPnP AV, SlimServer and Network DVD Player implementations, allowing users to directly stream content from the device without an additional server or PC. That capability bodes well for the growing smart-home market, where compatibility with digital media adapters and streaming devices is becoming ever more desirable.

With a NAS device, networking is the most important area, and that is where Infrant excels. The ReadyNAS NV supports both basic File Share security and Domain-based networking, allowing the unit to be deployed in either a small office or a large network. The NAS box also supports DHCP, Static IP addresses, WINS and NTP for simple, flexible integration into virtually any network.

Its affordable price and capacity for storage, along with Gigabit Ethernet speeds, make the ReadyNAS NV a natural for use as a backup device. Enterprise users looking to leverage disk-to-disk backup technologies, online backup storage and other speed-sensitive data availability needs will find the unit an ideal network add-on. By buying additional drives and trays, the device could be set up as an archive unit for large amounts of data, perhaps to meet legislative requirements or other long-term data-preservation requirements.

The ReadyNAS is managed via an intuitive browser-based interface. Administrators log into the unit&'s IP address and are presented with a menu of choices ranging from network settings to user security to backup chores. All of its capabilities are readily available from the management console, and VARs can choose to run the console over the Internet, which allows remote support for customers who are not comfortable managing the unit.

When it comes to a NAS box that functions as a jack of all trades, the ReadyNAS NV proves to be a best-of-breed product, second to none.