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SMB backup appliance


mlts22

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One thing that would be excellent for SMBs would be using Iomega's hardware bundled with Retrospect for a decent backup appliance.

 

For example, a removable hard disk technology like REV combined with an external RAID array would allow for excellent D2D2T (well, technically not tape) for backups that are ready to go for restores on site, but have disk cartridges that are removable to go to an offsite storage facility.

 

Attaching this device to a Retrospect backup server would easily take care of the backup and security needs of a small business, or a branch office of a larger business.

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  • 1 month later...

I would be interested (and EMC can make a lot of money) on a 'Retrospect Server Appliance' which runs a web based GUI running on a linux kernal.

 

Something like a Netgear ReadyNAS Pro with 6 drives (one per working day) + 1 for hot-swap SATA storage.

 

netgear-readynas-pro.jpg

 

Simply turn it on, head to the admin URL and off you go. Much better than relying on a Windows or Mac host to install software on in my opinion and you also get a nice slice of the hardware profit too ;)

 

Rich

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Half the world is owned by EMC now... :)

 

Having had a quick look at the EMC offerings, they tend to run Windows Storage Server rather than a slick Linux kernel, which means additional cost, memory overhead and.. well.. it's Microsoft, so it will need patches, reboots etc.

 

Handy features, which I'm sure your guys are looking at anyway would be:

 

- Dual or quad gigabit ethernet (multiple subnet access, or teaming for high bandwidth)

- At least 6 drives (one per working day + 1) or an option for 8 drives for 7 days (+1) backups.

- Pure cross platform, web based GUI so no need for remote client installation etc Java?

- External eSATA port(s) for fast archiving

- Utilising linux will also offer file-level snapshot functionality and would mean a very small footprint for the system - allowing you to use USB/static drives for system boot purposes (reliability). It would also provide native support for filesystems/OS's so even the client may not be required?

- VMware (also owned by EMC) plugin to allow automated VM live backups.

- UPS aware

 

Anyway, the list can go on.. but with the right hardware and software implimentation this appliance could rock!

 

Rich

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Having had a quick look at the EMC offerings, they tend to run Windows Storage Server rather than a slick Linux kernel

 

I don't think that is true. I have never used any EMC or Iomega product running that. I believe at one time Iomega had one Windows NAS. The rest are linux. The entire EMC lifeline software stack uses linux.

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