Netgear Launches ReadyRECOVER Appliances for Data Backup and Recovery

Netgear announced the launch of ReadyRECOVER appliances today to simplify data backup and recovery tasks for SMBs and enterprises. ReadyRECOVER appliances, at the hardware level, are the same as ReadyDATA units (Netgear’s high-end ZFS-based NAS / SAN systems targeting large SMBs and enterprises). The additional features have been introduced in partnership with StorageCraft, a company specializing in disaster recovery solutions.

The ReadyRECOVER scheme involves servers and PCs being backed up to the ReadyDATA device using StorageCraft’s ShadowProtect software. Netgear claims that ReadyDATA’s ZFS features (deduplication), as well as ShadowProtect’s block-level diff-based backup strategy help in achieving full system backups every 15 minutes. The block-level diff strategy results in maximum efficiency with minimal impact on storage resources. It also allows for more frequent backups to offsite disaster recovery nodes.

ReadyRECOVER also verifies backups (block-level change reports) against the original source data before committing them. Every backup is a full restore point (obviously, the first one is a complete backup of the system). These aspects provide ReadyRECOVER with a host of advantages over traditional backup solutions (lesser time for backup processing as well as restore, more frequent full backups etc.)

The purchase process involves selection of software licenses (depending on the number and types of clients being backed up), a ReadyDATA appliance (ReadyDATA 5200 rackmount or ReadyDATA 516 desktop form factor), storage media (SATA / SAS / NL-SAS / SSD) and hardware support contracts. Netgear claims that they are much more cost-effective compared to competing solutions with similar features from Symantec and Unitrends.

HGST Expands Ultrastar C10K Family with 1.8 TB 12 Gbps SAS HDD

HGST (a Western Digital company) today launched the Ultrastar C10K1800, a 10000 RPM hard drive in the 2.5″ form factor targeting enterprise / data center applications. Earlier versions of the Ultrastar C10K family topped out at 1.2 TB and came with a 6 Gbps SAS connector. The new member has a 1.8 TB capacity and comes with a cutting-edge 12 Gbps SAS connection. With this introduction, HGST is moving all capacities in the Ultrastar C10K family to 12 Gbps SAS.

Even though flash storage is grabbing all the headlines right now, there are many applications where the premium for IOPS doesn’t need to be paid, and cost per GB wins out. It is this market segment that HGST hopes to target with the Ultrastar C10K1800.

In order to improve performance over previous generation Ultrastar C10K HDDs, HGST has put in a ‘media cache’ – a disk-based caching technology providing a large non-volatile area for data storage. HGST claims that there is a significant improvement in write performance even at high workloads (compared to NAND-based caches). Improvements are in the order of 2.5x for random writes and 23% for sequential accesses when compared to older Ultrastar C10K drives.

HGST’s Disk-based Media Cache

The high level operation of the disk-based media cache is explained in the above picture. While HGST wasn’t ready to comment on how much of the drive capacity was being used as a disk cache, they did mention that the cache has no effect on the capacity visible to users. This technology is also being rolled out across all Ultrastar C10K models.

The hard drive family comes with both 4K native / 512 emulation and a 512 native sectors version for legacy compatibility. HGST also claims improved power efficiency. The drives are already being qualified by OEMs and are available now. The FIPS-certified encryption-enabled drives will ship early next year.

Netgear and ZyXEL Introduce Enterprise WLAN Controllers and Access Points

The enterprise Wi-Fi market is a hotly contested one with expensive offerings from companies such as Aruba Networks and Ruckus Wireless being the preferred choice of many IT administrators. Primary requirements for products in this market are the ability to support high client device densities and the provision of a robust and flexible management interface. Traditional consumer Wi-Fi vendors have also started expanding their offerings in this growing market segment. Last week, Netgear and ZyXEL introduced a few WLAN solutions targeting the enterprise space.

Netgear’s ProSAFE lineup is quite popular in the SMB space, and the new wireless controller as well as the wall-mount access point are being marketed under this brand name. The newly introduced products include the ProSAFE WC600 wireless controller (with support for centralized management of all of Netgear’s business-grade managed access points – single / dual-band and 2×2/3×3 solutions) and the ProSAFE WN370 wall mount access point with Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities.

The WC7600 can support up to 150 access points and licensing can be purchased in sets of 10 access points. The WN370 is a single-band 802.11n access point designed for in-room wired and wireless access. In addition to the wireless capabilities, the unit has a 1 Gbps uplink, 4x 100 Mbps Ethernet data ports and an additional voice port for VoIP digital phones. RF and power tuning, as well as wireless security, are handled by the WC7600 wireless controller. Netgear also has other dual-band standalone APs such as the WNDAP620 and WNDAP660 which can now be managed with the new wireless controller. Pricing for the WC7600 comes in at $3079 for 2 access point licenses. A license for 10 access points comes in at $1056. The WN370 access point will sell for $219.

ZyXEL is targeting the same market with the NCX5500 WLAN controller and the NWA5301-NJ PoE access point. The NCX5500 is priced a bit higher at $3399, but it also supports more access points (512, compared to 150 in the Netgear WC7600). While the NCX5500 has 6 GbE ports, the WC7600 has two 1/10G SFP+ ports for data uplink and a 1G RJ-45 port for management. ZyXEL implements specialized algorithms to maximize Wi-Fi availability as well as ensure spectrum utilization efficiency. The NWA5301-NJ is a single-band 2×2 802.11n access point priced at $139. It has a 100 Mbps uplink and three 100 Mbps downlink ports (one of which is PoE-capable and can be used for VoIP phones).