NETGEAR Announces Fail-safe, Expandable and Easily Shared Storage for Consumers

Sept. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NETGEAR, Inc. today announced the worldwide availability of its Storage Central (SC101) networked data storage device, the first to provide home and SOHO users with advanced data center storage technology at a fraction of the cost. Storage Central offers home and office users a fail-safe, expandable and easily shared networked storage solution for protecting and sharing large volumes of valuable digital content -- such as music, game, photo, and video files, and office documents -- wired or wirelessly over the network.

Incorporating the unique and powerful Z-SAN IP storage technology from Zetera Corporation, NETGEAR's Storage Central is versatile enough to accommodate any home or small office user's storage needs. As the only multi-drive solution in its class offering spanning and mirroring capabilities, Storage Central provides users with peace of mind. Storage Central allows consumers to know that their data is protected from drive failure by mirroring the data on two different physical drives and lets them easily add more capacity when the need arises. Consumers can choose two IDE disk drives of any size in their first Storage Central unit, as well as link multiple Storage Central units together for creating a storage depot of virtually unlimited capacity. Users can then choose to designate individual drive volumes as private, hidden or shareable with others on the network. The NETGEAR and Zetera solution is not only more cost-effective than competing Networked Attached Storage (NAS) devices, but also highly reliable with automatic data mirroring, as easy to use as accessing a local drive and more scalable.

"Storage Central works for everyone looking for an easy and affordable way to protect and share digital content -- from workers in small offices seeking a fail-safe, expandable and networked solution for critical documents, to home users looking to centralize, share and protect valuable collections of photos, music and high-definition movies," said Vivek Pathela, NETGEAR's senior director for consumer products. "In broadening our portfolio of innovative consumer networking products, NETGEAR is enabling users to capitalize on the convergence of rapidly advancing storage and network technologies. With Storage Central, users can focus on creating and easily sharing unlimited amounts of digital content, and rest assured that their information is protected with automatic mirroring, automatic backups and automatic synchronizations. Users can tailor a Storage Central solution to fit their capacity needs, be it as low as 100 gigabytes or as high as 1 terabyte."

NETGEAR's Storage Central is the first storage solution that offers the highly acclaimed Z-SAN IP-storage technology, which provides IP-based, block-level data transfers that enable multiple users to make efficient use of drives within the network through the dynamic allocation of volumes across multiple hard disks. Z-SAN also enables file and volume sharing between multiple users on the network to be as seamless as accessing their local C: drive. Additionally, Z-SAN assures users that their files are protected from hard disk failure, through automatic mirroring between two hard disks within the same Storage Central unit, or within a network of multiple Storage Central devices.

"Cost, scalability, performance and reliability are fundamental factors driving the success of a network storage system," said Dave Reinsel, IDC 's program director of storage research. "Solutions, such as Storage Central from NETGEAR, that incorporate Zetera's technology and leverage the native capabilities of IP for true peer-to-peer storage networking, provide home and small office users a new level of cost-effective, advanced storage solutions." An IDC-authored whitepaper on the subject can be downloaded from NETGEAR's web site at www.netgear.com/go/storagewhitepaper .

"Storage Central borrows the speed, performance and flexibility advantages of data center SAN technology and integrates it with the file sharing convenience of NAS devices," stated Chuck Cortright, chief executive officer of Zetera. "Our Z-SAN IP storage technology enables users to move blocks of data from Storage Central directly to the client's computer through a switch or router, avoiding the CPU-intensive bottlenecks associated with NAS solutions. Storage Central also delivers ease of use that surpasses anything out there remotely in its price class or size."

NETGEAR's Storage Central is compatible with Windows 2000 (SP4), XP Home or Pro (SP1 or SP2). Installing the device is effortless, requiring no assembly of parts or fumbling with screws. Users can choose any two commercially available 3.5" IDE (Parallel ATA) disks, regardless of vendor or capacity, and slide them into the device's vertical drive bays. Once plugged into a power outlet and connected to a wired or wireless router or switch via 10/100 Mbps Ethernet interface, Storage Central appears on the computer and behaves as a local disk drive, allowing users to organize and access files with the simplicity of a C: drive. With the device's sleek integrated heatsink, users can enjoy the device in silence without the whir of noisy fan blades.

Also included with Storage Central is the award-winning and simple-to-use SmartSync Pro backup and recovery software, which provides users with a reliable file backup and synchronization solution. Users can take advantage of SmartSync Pro's enhanced built-in features, which include a task scheduler, data compression tool, activity logger and password protection utility, to customize their storage needs within a single drive or across different drives, network volumes or remote computers. Smart Sync Pro also offers an innovative filter system that lets Storage Central users back up and mirror only their necessary files. Additionally, SmartSync Pro allows offline synchronization between computers and Storage Central units by tracking new, modified and deleted files, then applying the updates to a remote unit.

"The rapid commoditization of storage hardware has produced several unique storage area network solutions, but many have failed to make the grade when it comes to combining the reliability of enterprise grade technology with the affordability of a consumer electronic device," said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst of Parks Associates, a Dallas-based market research firm that specializes in residential and small office technology analysis. "Storage Central succeeds on both fronts while providing an ideal storage solution to the millions of consumers who are accumulating massive libraries of digital content."

When combined with NETGEAR's RangeMax Wireless Router (WPN824) with Smart MIMO technology, Storage Central completes the "Digital Makeover," enabling users to effortlessly store, transmit and stream digital content at blazing fast speeds throughout the home. As with the RangeMax router and NETGEAR's series of award-winning gateways, Storage Central's sleek and compact design allows for optimal placement among either personal workstations or home theater audio/video components. A video demonstration of Storage Central and the NETGEAR Digital Makeover is available for viewing at http://digitalmakeover.netgear.com . Visitors can enter to win complete NETGEAR Digital Makeovers delivered and installed in their homes by telling their stories of "Digital Disasters" where they lost valuable digital content or did not have their digital lives organized and easily accessible.

NETGEAR's Storage Central is backed by a one-year warranty and 24/7 technical support. It is available now worldwide via leading retailers, direct marketers, e-commerce sites and value-added resellers at an MSRP of $149.99 in the U.S. The popular SmartSync Pro backup software, separately a $30 value, is also included with the purchase of Storage Central.

SOURCE NETGEAR, Inc.