February 11, 2012

Seagate/PogoPlug Network Hard Drive Adapter Deals

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I’m a sucker for storage and networking so combining these two great tastes really gets me interested. I’ve been watching the CloudEngines Pogoplug with interest. It allows you to share a USB external hard disk drive across a LAN and even allows access over the Internet using the Pogoplug service. Last year, Seagate licensed the PogoPlug technology from CloudEngines and came out with their own-brand FreeAgent DockStar Network Adapter which includes the service. In addition to the special connector for Seagate’s pre-GoFlex portable hard drives, the DockStar has three standard USB ports for any old USB drive you might have hanging around.

Lemons Into Lemonade: Seagate Repackages SATA As GoFlex

Seagate's new GoFlex external drive lineup moves the smarts into the cable, simplifying function and connectivity upgrades

The external hard disk drive market is incredibly hot right now, but it’s also ultra-competitive. The latest trend is dockable multi-function drives that are friendlier to use and offer advanced features like video playback. Most docks rely on USB 2.0, but Seagate just dropped a bomb on the industry with a simple twist: They moved the intelligence outside the case, repackaging the standard internal SATA connector as GoFlex, an external link to a variety of docks and adapters.

Why I Like Drobo

There has been lots of talk about the Data Robotics (aka Drobo) SOHO “storage robot” – whoever they have doing their marketing deserves a raise! When I first heard about it, I was pretty puzzled – Why care about yet another storage enclosure, especially an overly expensive one that doesn’t even have NAS features? On [...]