Maxtor Serves Up Another Backup Solution for SMBs

Having branched out from consumer to SOHO-oriented storage, Maxtor expands even further into the small business arena with it’s latest external drive offering, the OneTouch II Small Business Edition (SBE). Based on the company’s OneTouch II drive, the SBE is designed specifically to handle data backup for companies running Windows 2000 or 2003 family of servers.

The idea behind SBE is to take the same backup approach of the OneTouch II and apply it to servers to simplify the process. The 200GB SBE connects to the server via a USB 2 cable and can backup up to 300GB of compressed data. Just like its OneTouch II predecessors, the SBE comes with installation wizards that walk you through the process. The drive also includes an integrated version of EMC’s Dantz Retrospect Express HD server software.

Taps for Tape?
According to Paul Streit, Maxtor’s director of branded products, SBE serves as a less complex, faster and more economical replacement for tape backup drives.

“The OneTouch II Small Business Edition drive makes a lot of sense for companies that don’t have a dedicated IT staff,” said Streit. “You can set up the drive so that it backs up data automatically and unattended &#151 even applications that are open and running.”

The drive’s default setting performs the backup each night at 10 PM, but you can adjust the timing to suit your needs. The result, according to Streit, is that “you don’t need anyone to rotate or manage the tapes or worry whether someone will forget to switch tapes. Small business owners get peace of mind knowing that all of their data’s going to be saved.”



 OneTouch II Small Business Edition

Server Says &#151 Designed for Windows 2000 and 2003 servers, the OneTouch II Small Business Edition external backup drive can store up to 300GB of compressed data.

Streit added that the SBE can both backup and restore data much faster than tape drives, and that the cost is significantly cheaper.

“We tested SBE against three major types of tape solutions, Travan, Exabyte and DAT,” said Streit. “Our tests showed that the OneTouch II Small Business Edition backed up data four times faster than Travan and was at least twice as fast as both the Exabyte and DAT solutions. Our restoration times were six, four and three times faster than Travan, Exabyte and DAT, respectively.”

Streit also said that the Maxtor product costs a lot less than a tape solution.

“There’s more to tape pricing than the cost of the actual tape drive. Our product costs $599.95 &#151 complete with everything you need to back up your Windows server. But according to our research on CDW‘s Web site, by the time you buy a tape drive, the backup software, additional software that lets you back up open files, open file tech support and ten Travan tapes, the cost hits $1,897.”

Basic Benefits
The SBE is designed to perform comprehensive data backup &#151 that includes data from the operating system, settings, updates, applications, databases, documents and open files. Streit said other benefits include:

  • Ease of use &#151 simple installation, setup and restore wizards
  • Automated, unattended backups &#151no physical intervention required, takes human error out of the equation
  • Lower total cost of ownership &#151 no worker hours needed to manage back ups and backup media
  • Remote notification &#151 automatic e-mail alerts as well as red and green light icons to let you know when the backup is complete
  • Self-grooming storage &#151 automatically delete duplicate or older file versions to save storage space
  • Maxtor Drive Lock &#151 password protection for the drive contents

Tale of the Tech Tape
The 200GB, 7,200 rpm OneTouch II SBE supports only Microsoft Windows Server 2000 and 2003 families. Minimum server requirements include a Pentium III, 500Mhz equivalent or higher processor, 256MB RAM, USB 2.0 port, CD-ROM and SMTP mail server access for remote e-mail notification.

Availability and Pricing
The Maxtor OneTouch II Small Business Edition drives will be available at major retailers, distributors and online sites (including Maxtor’s) starting mid-May. The drive costs $599.95.

Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of SmallBusinessComputing.com

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