New Storage Devices Come To Light At CES 2012, Storage Visions

CES And Storage Visions: Performance, Convenience For Consumers To Enterprises

This week found two trade shows, CES 2012 and Storage Visions, held in Las Vegas, giving storage aficionados the opportunity to see a wide range of storage devices for customers ranging from individuals looking for Wi-Fi movie access to enterprises looking to dramatically improve the performance of their data centers.

Consumer electronics resellers found several Wi-Fi-enabled storage devices and networked storage devices for accessing and sharing digital content. SMB solution providers found new data protection and related technologies. Enterprise solution providers found new SSD and Flash memory technology, software, and more to make their businesses more efficient.

And CRN found a way to bring news about many of these innovations to its readers. Continue on, and see what we mean..

Crucial: Intelligent SSD As Cache

Boise, Idaho-based Crucial used its presence at Storage Visions to introduce the Crucial Adrenaline Solid State Cache Solution, which includes a 50-GB Crucial m4 SSD, a 3.5-inch adapter bracket, and caching software. The Crucial Adrenaline intelligently caches the most frequently needed files on the SSD and keeps less frequently used files on the hard drive.

To install, just connect the SSD to a motherboard with a standard SATA cable, start the computer, and install the caching software. The software then combines the SSD with an existing hard drive.

The Crucial Adrenaline, which has a limited three-year warranty, is slated to ship this quarter.

Imation: Scalable Storage For SMBs

At Storage Visions, Imation highlighted its scalable storage platform, including the Imation InfiniVault and Imation DataGuard multi-tiered data-archive and data-protection appliances, as well as its Imation RDX removable hard disk storage and Linear Tape-Open (LTO) technologies, all of which target bringing storage efficiencies to SMB customers.

Imation also discussed its recent acquisition of the data duplication engine from Nine Technology which it plans to use to help customers eliminate redundant data while decreasing the time spent on backups and recovery.

Iomega: Targeting Small Business, Home Network Storage

Iomega, which is owned by EMC, used CES to show its expanded line of small business and consumer network storage products targeting content sharing, data protection, and video surveillance.

Included was Iomega's StorCenter ix2, a 2-bay desktop network storage device providing RAID 1 mirrored storage, support for Apple Time Machine, Apple iOS device connectivity, the ability to network up to five IP video surveillance cameras, and access to the Iomega Personal Cloud.

Also new is Iomega’s EZ Media & Backup Center, a network storage appliance targeting file sharing, data protection, and access to the Internet for home network users. It will be available in 1-TB, 2-TB, and 3-TB capacity points.

The new products are slated for a February release.

LaCie: Bringing Lightening eSATA Speed To Thunderbolt

At CES this year, Hillsboro, Ore.-based LaCie unveiled the LaCie eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series to add Thunderbolt technology to existing eSATA drives. The Hub connects to a late-model Mac via the Thunderbolt port and lets users connect two eSATA external hard drives to the Hub and get full eSATA speeds on their new Mac. A second Thunderbolt port on the Hub lets users connect other Thunderbolt peripherals, providing for up to six Hubs, with two eSATA drives per Hub, to connect to a Mac with full eSATA 3 Gbits per second speed.

Netgear: Wireless Media Storage Router For Home Networks

San Jose, Calif.-based Netgear used CES to roll out its new model WNDR4700 Netgear Media Storage Router. The Wi-Fi-enabled Media Storage Router comes with an integrated 2TB hard drive which can be upgraded by the user at any time, as well as two high-speed USB 3.0 ports for adding more storage capacity or for converting existing external USB hard drives into networked drives.

The appliance also features up to 900 Mbps of combined Wi-Fi speed to enable access by wireless Internet-enabled devices in the home, and offers both Apple Time Machine backup and Windows PC backup services.

OCZ: High-performance SSD

SSD developer OCZ and fabless semiconductor manufacturer Marvell worked together to develop and show OCZ's Kilimanjaro platform, a new version of its Z-Drive R5 SSD series designed to accelerate big data. The Z-Drive R5 supports up to 16 GBs per second of total bandwidth. Its performance reaches up to 2.52 million IOPS, with sequential transfer rates per card of up to 7.2 GBs per second. They also feature unlimited scalability and performance aggregation capability.

The RF, which OCZ showed at Storage Visions, is slated to ship soon in a range of form factors including full height, half height, and 2.5-inch PCIe. An optional power fail feature will also be available.

Panzura: Scalable Storage For Globally Distributed Data

San Jose, Calif.-based Panzura used Storage Visions to demonstrate its new Panzura global file storage system and its Amplidata cloud storage solution as a way for making all files available to all users across all locations in a corporate network. The Panzura global file system provides a fast, efficient way of handling document storage and sharing by leveraging a global file management system. When used with the Amplistor cloud connector, the Panzura storage becomes a multi-petabyte scale storage system which can be used as a public and cloud storage solution for globally-distributed enterprises.

Paragon Software: New Version Of Its Backup, DR Bundle

Paragon Software Group, Irvine, Calif., used CES to discuss the upcoming version 12 of its Hard Disk Manager Server. HDM Server provides a complete backup and disaster recovery software bundle for physical and virtual environments, and features instant system recovery and bare-metal restores to dissimilar hardware. It also includes 4-KB data block-aware migration and virtualization utilities, as well as advanced partitioning and data wiping tools. Version 12 of HDM Server is slated to be released next month.

Paragon also unveiled a new reseller relationship with Insight Integrated Systems, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based solution provider.

pureSilicon: Performance And Capacity In An SSD

pureSilicon, Pine Brook, N.J., used CES to unveil new SSDs featuring capacities of up to 1.6 TBs with a high-performance 6 Gbits per second SATA interface.

The Nitro N2 SSD features native command queuing, 32-bit DDR3 data buffer, and a high-performance proprietary controller architecture. It is available in capacities of up to 1.6 TBs in a 2.5-inch, 9.5mm low-profile form factor.

The Renegade R4 SSD is a ruggedized model based on the Nitro N2 SSD targeting defense, aerospace, and medical applications. The latest version now SiPher self-encryption and security features, including customer-defined and industry-specific secure-erase algorithms. Renegade products meet MIL_STD_810F requirements and can be potted and/or conformal-coated for use in extreme environments.

Samsung Semiconductor: Wireless + Optical Drive = Easy Content Sharing

At CES, Samsung Semiconductor unveiled its new Optical SMART Hub which targets fast and easy content sharing. It combines an external optical disk drive with a wireless access point to provide simple backing up and accessing of media files for PCs, tablet PCs, smart phones, or smart TVs. In addition, users can wirelessly stream and play CDs and DVDs on their smart devices to listen to music or watch movies. The SMART Hub also allows CD and DVD writing functions without needing to turn on a desktop or notebook PC.

An Android app for the SMART Media Hub will be available when it launches later this quarter, with an app for the iPhone set to launch soon after. List price is set at $129.99.

Seagate: Wi-Fi Access To Entertainment Storage

Seagate at CES demonstrated new enhancements and features to its GoFlex Satellite drive, which is Wi-Fi enabled storage to wirelessly stream media to multiple mobile devices simultaneously.

For its latest version, Seagate collaborated with Verizon Wireless to develop a 4G LTE mobile wireless storage solution. The company demonstrated the ability to provide mobile iPad or Android devices with space for over 300 high-definition movies; download music, movies, and photos over 4G LTE and stream it all over Wi-Fi for up to three mobile devices; and connect to entertainment libraries over the Verizon 4G LTE network for accessing entertainment while on the go.

Toshiba: High-speed USB 3.0 Flash For Video, Other Large Files

Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC) used CES to launch its newest flash memory offering, the TransMemory-EX USB 3.0 flash drive. The TransMemory-EX is targeted at users requiring portability of video content and other large files, and for the high-speed transfer of data between digital products.

The TransMemory-EX features Toshiba’s DDR NAND, and offers data transfer rates of up to 220 MBs per second for reading and 94 MBs per second for writing, or about 20 times faster than Toshiba’s previous models. Power consumption is a maximum of 300 mA.

The new Flash drives are priced at $102 for a 32-GB model and $192 for a 64-GB model.