Seagate simplifies remote access for SMBs
Seagate has launched a free remote access service for the small business market that enables users to access files on their external storage device from any Internet-enabled computer.
Just over a year after its acquisition of Mirra, Seagate has integrated the company's backup and remote access technology into a storage device that is designed for the small business and home user markets.
Kevin Lee, managing director of sales and marketing at Seagate APAC, said the Mirra-branded Sync and Share Personal Server, made it simple for non-technical users to access content on the Mirra server over the Internet.
"When you are talking about remote access, in the past you needed someone that knew FTP and how to set up a server.... When you power up the Mirra server, it will connect itself to mirra.com, which will register the IP address of this device. When you need to get access to your own server, you can go through mirra.com.
"People don't have to manage the IP address or the FTP server," said Lee, who pointed out that the Mirra server was able to deal with dynamic IP addresses as well as basic firewall configurations.
"For simple firewall it goes through but if you are on a corporate network that goes through multiple firewalls, then I don't know.... It is designed for the small office or home where the set-up is not that complicated. A normal person without IT training should be able to set this up," he said.
The Mirra server will be available in Australia by the end of October. It comes in 320GB and 500GB versions, which cost AU$699 and AU$799 respectively.
Terabyte NAS for SMB market
Seagate also launched its 1TB Maxtor Shared Storage II device, which is designed to allow small businesses with little or no technical know-how to backup, share and protect their files.
The device connects to a LAN and can be configured to automatically backup data from all computers on the network. It has RAID I enabled so if one of the devices' two hard drives fail, the user's data should still be recoverable.
Lee said the device can also be used to share a printer with others on the local network.
"You can share printing -- you are able to hook up the printer by USB port and every computer will be able to share the printer," he said.
According to Lee, the most important feature of the device was the simplicity of its software.
"It has software that allows you to automatically backup all your PCs or Macs. People will not really have to do anything except plug it in. The user doesn't need to be an IT manager to set up this device.
The Maxtor device comes in 1TB, 500GB and 320GB versions but only the terabyte version has RAID functionality. Products are available immediately and cost AU$1,199, AU$599 and AU$349 respectively.