4-Bay Seagate Windows Server NAS

Seagate Technology plc introduced the latest addition to the company’s business storage product offerings, Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS.

Designed for offices or workgroups with up to 50 employees, this NAS centralizes storage to allow access, collaboration and sharing of files from all computers within a business network, while hosting PC backups in one central location.

“Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 introduces groundbreaking new storage functionality for organizations of all sizes, and the Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS takes advantage of these advances to serve the growing demand from small- and medium-sized businesses,” said Brian Hillger, director, product marketing, Microsoft Corp. “We are happy to have collaborated with Seagate in developing a NAS solution that integrates into existing server infrastructures.”

Windows Integration
This makes it easy to expand into a branch office or add local storage to an existing network because it’s designed for businesses utilizing an existing Windows IT infrastructure. With native support for Active Directory, management of users is made with simple setup through an existing directory instead of the manual entry of users for access and control on each device. Tailored for the IT pro, it integrates into existing Windows environments, including compatibility with AD.

“Seagate takes great pride in our ability to develop specialized solutions for a wide-range of business storage use cases,” said Scott Horn VP of global marketing, Seagate. “As businesses grow, they will need a simple way to seamlessly integrate more storage capacity within their existing business applications. The new Seagate Business Storage Windows Server 4-bay NAS provides a reliable yet simple data management and data protection solution for these fast-growing small business customers.”

Keep Business Data Secure
Windows Storage Spaces helps protect data by storing redundant copies on multiple disks. The BitLocker encryption provides peace of mind in knowing that files are secure from unauthorized access. It manages installed drives to give you the blend of capacity and redundancy.

“Growing small businesses demand dependability and security for their storage, backups and transactions,” said Richard Doherty, research director, The Envisioneering Group. “Seagate’s employment of Windows Server 2012 in the company’s latest addition to their new Business Storage portfolio delivers on these storage demands that are so central to the growth of small businesses.”

Performance at a Value
The NAS delivers on performance at a price point for SMBs.

Powered by a 2.13 GHz dual-core Atom processor combined with Windows Storage Server 2012 to deliver network file transfer performance.

Featuring HDDs optimized for NAS to support customized error recovery controls, specialized power management and vibration tolerance for performance and reliability, NAS HDD drives provide high-capacity storage for NAS servers.

Support for third-party Windows Server add-ins allows a business to do more with a Windows server enabling the NAS to be customized for specific business needs. Additionally, the company has developed and included system monitoring software that simplifies management by integrating the most common tasks into a single interface. Plus, the built-in support for iSCSI enables performance and compatibility for virtualized environments.

“HDD manufacturers, such as Seagate, are uniquely positioned in the SMB NAS market given their expertise to integrated workload-optimized HDDs into a multi-bay Windows Storage Server device,” stated Mark Geenen, president, Trendfocus, Inc. “Seagate’s NAS-specific HDDs include datacenter-class features tuned for smaller multi-drive racks, ensuring high performance, reliability and affordability for a wide range of small and medium business environments.”

Pricing and Availability
The NAS comes in a range of capacities from 8TB for $1599.99 MSRP to 16TB for $1999.99 MSRP to meet the needs of IT professionals with existing Windows Servers systems deployed.