Seagate offers encrypted NAS for SMBs

By Jake Widman
Tuesday, 24 March 2009 23:49

Technology

Extending its BlackArmor brand into the network-attached storage space, Seagate has announced the NAS 440/420 storage units, aimed at workgroups of up to 50 workstations. Both units come in a 6.30-x-8.15-x-10.59-inch enclosure designed to look like a safe. The 440 comes with four hard drives preinstalled, offering 4, 6, or 8 TB of storage space; the 420 comes with two drives, for 2 TB of storage. All the drives are hot-swappable without the use of tools, and the 420 can be upgraded by adding two more disks when the time comes. Otherwise, the units are identical, with two Ethernet ports for LAN connections or NAS replication, four USB ports for attaching external drives or printers, and RAID support.

Previously available in the Maxtor BlackArmor portable drives, Seagate's built-in encryption technology can be applied to individual files or to the entire volume. The included software handle automatic scheduled backup, both full-system or incremental, and can do a bare-metal system restore on a networked PC running Windows XP or Vista. The system supports Macs on the network as well, though it can't restore them. Management is via the BlackArmor Discovery software (both Windows and Mac versions) or through a standard Web browser.

The 420 model will go for US$800, while the 440 model will list at $1,200 for 4 TB, $1,700 for 6 TB, and $2,000 for 8 TB. The units are scheduled to be available in May.