Iomega, the anchor company in the Consumer and Small Business Products division of storage giant EMC, last week introduced an External SSD Flash Drive designed for business and "prosumer" users. Boasting USB 3.0, built-in encryption, and a suite of backup and security software, the drive is the vanguard of a new breed of rugged and compact external storage. Although expensive by consumer standards, business and pro users will welcome its combination of features and performance. (read more)

The introduction of Database Availability Groups (DAGs) into Microsoft Exchange 2010 is being hailed by many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) as a key technology to making high availability (HA) accessible and affordable since it enables the use of hard disk drives (HDDs) that are internal to a physical Exchange server. However the fact that SMBs can now use internal HDDs as part of Exchange HA solution does not necessarily mean they should. (read more)

Quite a few articles have already been written about the new Iomega StorCenter ix12-300r Network Storage Array with many of them focusing on the disruptive nature that this model is going to have on storage arrays intended for the midsized business space (250 users or less). But as I read many of these articles, they are overlooking some of the key reasons why it will be so disruptive. (read more)

Since EMC acquired Iomega about two years ago, the range of new features that customers can find as standard on Iomega's StorCenter™ lineup of network attached storage (NAS) products continues to grow. One of the more exciting additions is the new replication feature which gives small businesses new found flexibility to protect and recover their data at alternate locations. But like with any replication software, there are some "Do's" and "Don'ts" associated with properly using it. (read more)

Some of the most read blogs on DCIG's website in 2009 covered how small and midsize businesses (SMBs) were implementing disk-based backup in their environments. So it should come as no surprise that individuals like Ken Clipperton, the Director of Information Technology at Midland Lutherans College (MLC), is also in the midst of implementing disk-based backup at MLC. What is unexpected are some of the decisions that he needs to make as he implements it at MLC. (read more)

Everyone has backup problems, and educational institutions with limited budgets and IT staff may feel the pain of backup more so than most. In a previous blog, I shared some of the specific backup and disaster recovery challenges that Midland Lutherans College (MLC) in Fremont, NE, was facing and how its initial selection of a NAS device fell short of resolving those issues. However MLC's Director of Information Technology, Ken Clipperton, did not abandon his search for a disk-based backup solution and found the Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d a good match for MLC's backup requirements. (read more)

As NAS providers like Iomega add more software features to their NAS appliances, they are attracting the interest of an entirely new set of organizations. One such organization, Midland Lutheran College (MLC) in Fremont, NE, was so impressed by the features on the new Iomega StorCenter ix4-200d over competing products that it went ahead and purchased the product for use in its academic environment. (read more)

As I wrote previously, many small and medium businesses (SMBs) can gain some real benefits from server virtualization with the Iomega StorCenter™ ix4-200d a prime example of a storage appliance that can be used with server virtualization in these environments. But, what I didn't mention was which Ethernet TCP/IP network storage protocol should be used - iSCSI or NFS. (read more)

Most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have limited IT budgets so when it comes to storing data and reducing costs and complexity they must do so wisely. Further, most have few or no IT personnel so they also need technology solutions that they can deploy and scale easily without requiring inordinate amounts of time to manage. Server virtualization is now increasingly viewed as a good fit for SMBs and with the new emphasis that VMware put on reaching out to SMBs at last week's VMworld, it is more important than ever for SMBs to quantify what benefits they can expect to glean from server virtualization before deploying it. (read more)

It was only back in February that Iomega with great fanfare released its StorCenter Pro ix4-100 targeted at the SMB market. Now, only 6 months later, Iomega announces an updated version of the ix4-100 appropriately named the StorCenter™ ix4-200d. The ix4-200d doubles the storage capacity and triples the processing power of the ix4-100d but it is the addition of replication to its EMC LifeLine software that really makes the ix4-200d stand out from its competitors. (read more)