Adaptec Rolls out Storage for SMB's  - Snap Server 500 Series
 

Adaptec recently launched software and its highest-capacity network-attached storage appliances designed for small and midsize businesses.

The company's StorAssure Personal Edition software allows for continuous backup of desktop or laptop data to an Adaptec Snap Server appliance. The Snap Server 500 Series consists of three new IDhigh (1.75-inch) NAS boxes with a maximum capacity of 43.2 TB of Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives or 26.4 TB of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives.

StorAssure wizards simplify configuration of the software and the creation of backup jobs. Rules let users decide the types of files to protect. The software also lets users save multiple versions of files.

When a user is disconnected from a network, changes to files are constantly logged. When the user reconnects, changes are saved to the network automatically. If a laptop is lost or if files are deleted or corrupted, the software guides the user through the recovery process.

Backup of laptop and desktop data has not been a priority for SMBs, analysts say. According to the Enterprise Storage Group, SMB data is growing at 60 percent to 100 percent annually. IDC reports that more than half of SMBs do not back up their client data.

The Snap Server 500 Series consists of the 510, 520, and 550 appliances, each of which is configured with redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and AMD Opteron processors for its storage controller. The appliances connect to a network via redundant Gigabit Ethernet adapters. All three NAS boxes support RAID Level O, Level 1, and Level 5 for fault tolerance and are managed via Snap Server Manager software.

The 510, which uses SATA drives, has a capacity ranging from 512 MB to 4 GB. The 520 uses SATA and SAS drives and has a capacity ranging from 1 TB to 26 TB. The 550 also uses SATA and SAS drives and scales to 43.2 TB.

Adaptec bundles CA eTrust antivirus and BakBones NetVault backup software with the Snap Servers. NetVault contains virtual tape-library capability allowing customers to deploy disk-to-disk or disk-to-disk-to-tape backup.

StorAssure costs $36 per Windows client. It works with versions of Windows ranging from ME though XP Service Pack 2 and Windows 2003.The Snap Server 510 starts at $3,600; the 520 starts at $4,600; and the 550 starts at $10,000.