Buffalo Americas Inc. has added a new product line aimed at organizations with up to 25 users to its TeraStation NAS storage portfolio.
Targeted particularly at companies that currently backup data to a thumb drive or external hard drive, the entry-level TeraStation 3010 delivers specs typically associated with more sophisticated products at an affordable price point, according to Bill Rhodes, Austin, Texas-based Buffalo’s director of channel sales.
“[It has] all the same software features as higher end TeraStation NAS units but at a more economical price for small businesses that might not benefit from performance-oriented NAS systems,” he says, including dental and medical practices, insurance agencies, and accounting firms.
All TeraStation 3010 arrays come with an integrated copy of NovaBACKUP, an entry-level backup solution from NovaStor Software AG, a Swiss company with North American headquarters in Agoura Hills, Calif. Ten workstation licenses for that system are also included, along with built-in data replication functionality that lets businesses copy protected data to private clouds and public cloud services such as Amazon S3, from Amazon Web Services, and Dropbox Business.
Compatible with Microsoft‘s Windows and Windows Server operating systems as well as Apple‘s MacOS, 3010 series arrays come with either 2 or 4 RAID-protected hard drives pre-installed.
“[It’s] really aimed at small businesses that are not overly technical and/or resellers that don’t want to stop to identify correct HDDs, test them, and spend time setting up RAID,” Rhodes says.
Significantly, those HDDs are NAS-grade devices rather than the desktop drives shipped with the earlier TeraStation 3000 product family. The 3010 series will replace the 3000 line, which Buffalo plans to phase out by July of this year.
The 3010 also features a 1.4GHz Annapurna dual-core processor offering faster performance than its 3000 series predecessors. Units come with 1 GB of DDR3 RAM and storage capacity running from 4 TB to 16.
Security features include Buffalo’s Boot Authentication technology, which protects data on stolen units by allowing users to access the system only when connected to an authorized network, as well as optional data and drive encryption functionality. Physical security is provided by a lock on the front panel that prevents hard drives from being stolen, as well as a Kensington Security Slot that supports lockable cables from Kensington Computer Products Group, of San Mateo, Calif.
Available immediately, the TeraStation 3010 comes in a 2-bay desktop model with MSRPs beginning at $599.99, a 4-bay desktop configuration priced at $729.99 and up, and a 4-bay 1U rackmount unit with prices starting at $1,199.99.†All three models are backed by a three-year warranty with optional five-year extensions and 24/7 U.S.-based technical support.
Buffalo introduced a business class line of Windows-based TeraStation products in November, and a separate set of NAS arrays with support for 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking two weeks ago.
