August 1, 2006

Western Digital's NetCenter - Little Appliance that Goes a Long Way

Western Digital's NetCenter network drive is more than just a USB connected hard disk. It's a simple appliance that extends the storage and functionality of your network.

WD writes that you can connect the NetCenter to your wired or wireless network to centralize and share files. Print from any computer on the network and you can set up the WD NetCenter as a local drive on any computer. It includes EMC Retrospect Express backup and system recovery software -- this backup software includes features such as full system backup and restore, point-in-time restores, file-by-file backup, easy scheduling, encryption, and backup virus protection.

There are many options small businesses have to share files (and back them up). You can get a full server and install Microsoft Small Business Server, Nitix or Novell Small Business Server Suite. There's also FileEngine, which is software and hardware in one bundle.

You could get an appliance such as Western Digital's NetCenter, Mirra Personal Server from Seagate (WD's arch rival) and I'm sure there are other simple appliances.

Western Digital's NetCenter is $500 and enables you to lock files for secure access to only authorized users, share printers. It's central interface ensures that it won't be complicated for you to install.

You can read more about it from Small Business Computing here.

Read more about small business servers from CRN here. The chart below is from their article:

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