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Netgear Launches ReadyRECOVER Appliances for Data Backup and Recovery
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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.

 

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Western Digital My Book Duo DAS Review

Earlier this week, we took a look at LaCie’s high end 2-bay RAID DAS, the 2big Thunderbolt 2. It integrated both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 2 as connectivity options. At $800 for a 8 TB version, the pricing carries a premium for the Thunderbolt connectivity. USB 3.0 is, in a way, the poor man’s Thunderbolt. With a focus on the average consumer, Western Digital launched the My Book Duo USB 3.0 DAS with hardware RAID capabilities a few weeks back. The 8 TB variant is priced at a more palatable $450. Read on to see how it performs in our evaluation.

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Western Digital My Book Duo DAS Review

Earlier this week, we took a look at LaCie’s high end 2-bay RAID DAS, the 2big Thunderbolt 2. It integrated both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 2 as connectivity options. At $800 for a 8 TB version, the pricing carries a premium for the Thunderbolt connectivity. USB 3.0 is, in a way, the poor man’s Thunderbolt. With a focus on the average consumer, Western Digital launched the My Book Duo USB 3.0 DAS with hardware RAID capabilities a few weeks back. The 8 TB variant is priced at a more palatable $450. Read on to see how it performs in our evaluation.

Your Thoughts on the Wearables Market
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Your Thoughts on the Wearables Market

For the past couple of years we’ve noticed a shift in focus of dominant players in the smartphone space. As the smartphone market moves from rapid expansion to a maturing phase, the companies on top don’t want to be left behind in the same way the notebook PC vendors were at the start of the smartphone/tablet race.

At the same time, continued reduction in transistor feature sizes and power consumption have enabled a new class of low power SoC. ARM’s product offerings in particular extend both up and down the power curve. There’s Cortex M for ultra low power devices, often perfect for wearables, and then a range of Cortex A CPUs for higher end wearables all the way up to smartphones, tablets and eventually servers. 

Initial successes in the wearables space were specialized pieces of hardware. For example, pedometers and health trackers like the Fitbits of the world. Most of these designs leverage Cortex M series CPU cores. More recently however we’ve seen a more serious push into the world of smart watches. Initial plays here were more disorganized in terms of hardware and OS selection, but we’re beginning to see some consolidation on the heels of Google’s Android Wear announcement. 

At last month’s Google IO we saw the first official Android Wear devices launch from LG and Samsung. Later this summer we’ll also see the arrival of the Moto 360, an arguably much more appealing Android Wear device thanks to a greater focus on design. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks with LG’s G Watch and am still toying with the best way to present my thoughts on the device. In short it seems like a great platform if you’re a developer, but honestly lacks the battery life (I measured under 9 hours of actual use, display on but dimmed on a single charge) and feature set today to really convince me as a consumer.

Last month we soft launched our new Wearables content section at AnandTech, with ARM graciously agreeing to be a launch sponsor. ARM’s support will allow us to likely do some wearable giveaways in the not too distant future too.

The path to wearable computing becoming something more substantial however demands a lot of things to change. If we’re talking about watches we need better battery life, the functionality needs to improve as well (although I am impressed by some of what’s already been introduced for Android Wear). I’m curious to get your thoughts on the wearable space. What would it take for you to add yet another computing platform to your life? Is anyone out there waiting for the perfect smart watch? I know I stopped wearing watches nearly a decade ago, and to go back I’ll likely need quite a bit of convincing in terms of a great product.

If you’ve got thoughts on this space, we’d love to hear them as they’ll help shape our coverage going forward. Leave your comments below.

Your Thoughts on the Wearables Market
  • Comments are Closed

Your Thoughts on the Wearables Market

For the past couple of years we’ve noticed a shift in focus of dominant players in the smartphone space. As the smartphone market moves from rapid expansion to a maturing phase, the companies on top don’t want to be left behind in the same way the notebook PC vendors were at the start of the smartphone/tablet race.

At the same time, continued reduction in transistor feature sizes and power consumption have enabled a new class of low power SoC. ARM’s product offerings in particular extend both up and down the power curve. There’s Cortex M for ultra low power devices, often perfect for wearables, and then a range of Cortex A CPUs for higher end wearables all the way up to smartphones, tablets and eventually servers. 

Initial successes in the wearables space were specialized pieces of hardware. For example, pedometers and health trackers like the Fitbits of the world. Most of these designs leverage Cortex M series CPU cores. More recently however we’ve seen a more serious push into the world of smart watches. Initial plays here were more disorganized in terms of hardware and OS selection, but we’re beginning to see some consolidation on the heels of Google’s Android Wear announcement. 

At last month’s Google IO we saw the first official Android Wear devices launch from LG and Samsung. Later this summer we’ll also see the arrival of the Moto 360, an arguably much more appealing Android Wear device thanks to a greater focus on design. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks with LG’s G Watch and am still toying with the best way to present my thoughts on the device. In short it seems like a great platform if you’re a developer, but honestly lacks the battery life (I measured under 9 hours of actual use, display on but dimmed on a single charge) and feature set today to really convince me as a consumer.

Last month we soft launched our new Wearables content section at AnandTech, with ARM graciously agreeing to be a launch sponsor. ARM’s support will allow us to likely do some wearable giveaways in the not too distant future too.

The path to wearable computing becoming something more substantial however demands a lot of things to change. If we’re talking about watches we need better battery life, the functionality needs to improve as well (although I am impressed by some of what’s already been introduced for Android Wear). I’m curious to get your thoughts on the wearable space. What would it take for you to add yet another computing platform to your life? Is anyone out there waiting for the perfect smart watch? I know I stopped wearing watches nearly a decade ago, and to go back I’ll likely need quite a bit of convincing in terms of a great product.

If you’ve got thoughts on this space, we’d love to hear them as they’ll help shape our coverage going forward. Leave your comments below.