Iomega Releases Lower-cost Storage Array for SMBs

Iomega today announced a new rack-mountable storage array aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses and enterprise workgroups that offers up to 24TB of capacity, but has a starting price of $5000 with lower capacities.

Iomega said the StorCenter ix12-300r Network Storage array incorporates parent-company EMC 's management, backup and networking software and can support up to 250 users with either block-level or file-level storage.

The array comes with EMC's LifeLine software, a management utility based on Linux and designed for cross-platform support of Windows, Mac, Linux and UNIX computers and is HCL certified for use with VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer.

The StorCenter ix12-300r Network Storage array provides up to 24TB of networked storage in a 2U [3.5-in high] form factor and can be configured as primary storage for applications servers, as disk to disk backup or shared storage for virtualized environments. The array mounts in an EIA-310 standard equipment rack and starts with 4TB and 8TB base configurations that can be expanded in four-drive increments of 4TB or 8TB. A 4TB model has a starting price of $4,999. The array will be available from CDW on May 10 and from other EMC reseller partners in mid-June.

"From capacity, expandability and reliability, to network flexibility to support for applications like Microsoft Exchange, the ix12-300r retains Iomega's signature ease-of-use with key features business users expect and need, including testing ... on EMC's own EMC Storage Matrix (ESM)," Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega, said in a statement. "The software capabilities, testing and certification set the ix12-300r apart from anything else in its category."

The ix12 can be configured with different levels of RAID support. The array comes pre-configured with RAID 5, but can be reconfigured for RAID 6, RAID 1, RAID 10 or JBOD.

The ix12 also supports multiple storage pools. For example, it can be configured in an eight-drive RAID 6 group for file and database data and a four-drive RAID 10 group for log data. The array also supports non-disruptive online capacity expansion.

The ix12 is powered by an Intel Core2Duo CPU, has 2GB of memory, and comes with four Gigabit Ethernet ports, and three USB 2.0 ports. The array also has hot-swappable fans and power supplies.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld . Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed . His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com .

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