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Low-Cost, Reliable, and Abundant Storage Spaces

I’m always running into situations- seriously, like weekly, where clients need to find some place to put their files. And it’s not just video people that have this issue, although it’s easy to see why they need more room to put their stuff, it’s businesses of all kinds, storing all kinds of different types of data. Anyone storing any data always has one major concern: they don’t want to lose any of it.

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For anyone on the Mac platform looking to transfer large documents too big for email, but don’t wish to open up insecure FTP ports and deal with cumbersome FTP applications, Rumpus is worth a look.  It brings the power of FTP file sharing to the masses, and allows for the easy transfer of large media files.   More »

Data gets lost; it’s not an “if” but more “when”, followed by “now what do I do”. If you’re like most businesses, you have a backup plan in place, and it’s similar to one of these:

1. Your server(s) backup your data. If it isn’t on the server, it doesn’t get backed up. Your users are instructed to save their files to the server.
2. Your server(s) back up, and your client machines are also backed up by the server via a backup client running on each machine.
3. Your client machines automatically store their information on the server (via Remote Home Synchronization, or similar)

Now these are all fine methods for achieving a backup (some better than others), but it leaves out a possible group of individuals More »

I think I’ve put together just short of 1.6 Zillion quotes for XServe’s and Mac Pro’s for Iris Professional Services, and one of the common “mistakes” I see people making when trying to spec their own Configure To Order machines is the inclusion of an Apple RAID card. By “mistake”, I mean that people will include a RAID card when they don’t really know what it does or may not need it for what they want to do. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to contrast the Hardware RAID card against the Software RAID functionality provided standard within the Mac OS X Disk Utility. More »

The Mighty Drobo

Standard storage RAIDs are nice.  They provide a decent option for large storage pools, fast data access and drive failure protection.  But what if you don’t need the fastest data access possible, or can’t afford a large storage pool right away?  RAIDS can be costly, and don’t allow for easy scalability once they are setup. That’s where the Drobo comes in.

Data Robotics Inc. looked at the shortcomings with traditional RAID systems, and decided to build a product to overcome them.  On June 5, 2007 they introduced what they referred to as “the first fully automated storage robot designed to ensure that data is always protected, storage capacity is unlimited and is exceptionally easy to expand.”  Essentially, a RAID which can be expanded dynamically and in a non-destructive manner. More »