The Iomega StorCenter PX4 is both an evolution of the older IX4 and the start of a new line of business-focused devices

Iomega today announced a new line of small desktop and rackmount storage devices. The PX Series addresses many of the limitations of the IX line, bringing high-performance CPUs, SSD, “bring your own drive” options, and “personal cloud” data protection. But the PX will not replace the recently-refreshed IX; instead, it segments the market between home office (IX) and small business (PX).

A Look Back At the IX

I have been ambivalent about Iomega’s IX line of StorCenter devices since they appeared in 2009. Although they bring impressive features like iSCSI and multimedia at a low cost, devices like the ix4-200d in my lab left me wanting more. This was especially true in the area of performance, where the 4-drive ix4 delivered a mediocre 25-30 MB/s of iSCSI throughput in my testing.

The core issue for the ix4 was its reliance of an under-powered embedded CPU and modest 512 MB of integrated DRAM. It was nice to have a sub-$1000 iSCSI array for VMware ESX and Microsoft Windows Server testing, but there was no way I would deploy it in a production business environment. The performance issue was addressed with the ix12-200r, but it came at a steeper price and that rack-mount device was not intended for use outside the data center.

Another concern about the IX was its dizzying set of features. One got the feeling that EMC’s engineers were given free rein when adding features to the StorCenter’s “LifeLine” platform, and the result was something of a mess. This improved with each successive release, but the IX feels like a servant of too many masters: Is it a home multimedia device, a security server, an office file server, or an iSCSI target for virtualization?

PX: A New Level of Performance?

The PX changes everything, or appears to at least. Clearly aimed at the small business and remote office market, the PX promises an enterprise feature set and the horsepower needed to deliver serious performance.

		PX4-300d	PX6-300d	PX4-300r
Form Factor		Desktop		Rack-Mount
Disk Slots		4	6	4
CPU		Intel Atom D525		Intel Celeron
RAM		2 GB SO-DIMM

Let’s start with the brain. All StorCenter PX devices include a dual-core Intel CPU: An Atom D525 in the PX4 and PX6 desktop models and a Celeron multi-core in the rack-mount PX4. All three models also feature 2 GB of RAM, and SSD can be used for high-performance applications. The StorCenter operating system should perform much better on this platform, which is reminiscent of the existing ix12 array. Expect that device to be refreshed shortly with SSD support and perhaps a Sandy Bridge CPU.

The new devices have been completely redesigned mechanically. The PX4 is similar in total volume to the IX4, though it appears smaller since it is taller and skinnier. The PX6 is a veritable tower, while the rack-mount PX4 has a conventional look but adds an optional swappable power supply and redundant fans for datacenter use.

Flexible Drive Options

Iomega has added "bring your own drive" capability to the PX line

There are three firsts in terms of drive support:

1. Iomega has added a “bring your own drive” (BYOD) option, allowing end users to buy an empty or partially-populated PX device and add supported drives in the future. The software does not support dissimilar drives as flexibly as some competitors, but this lowers the price point substantially.
2. The PX Series supports solid state drives (SSDs), as we will discuss in a moment.
3. Finally, the included drive carriers now support 2.5-inch drives, though capacity and price points make this less interesting except when it comes to SSDs.

This is a big step forward for Iomega, who has long required their own drives to be used in these devices. Iomega will ship 1, 2, and 3 TB Hitachi 7200 rpm Deskstar drives at first, but may add other options in the future. I expect a low-power “green” drive from Seagate or Western Digital.

The PX Series approved vendor list (AVL) includes many popular options, including the Hitachi Deskstar, Seagate Barracuda (including the LP line) and Western Digital Caviar and Green. The company has created an area in their support forums for customers to discuss other drive options, though only AVL-listed drives are supported. Since many of these drives are 4K natively, the PX Series should have no trouble with the shift to Advanced Format.

SSD Ahoy!

The introduction of solid state disk (SSD) storage is a major step forward. Iomega will use the excellent Micron C400 (aka Crucial M4) SSD in 128 or 256 GB capacity points. These  are installed in pairs and will typically be used as a RAID 1 mirror for performance-sensitive data. The best application for the SSD, therefore, is the 6-bay PX6-300d, along with a 4-disk RAID 5 set.

There is no automated storage tiering or SSD caching in the Iomega PX series. Administrators simply create RAID sets, LUNs, and shares on SSD or HDD and manually place data there based on need. It is possible to leverage the StorCenter’s included “copy job” functionality to create a rudimentary tiering system, but it seems likely that most users will rely on manual data placement.

It will be interesting to see what the combination of the dual-core 1.8 GHz Atom CPU and C400 SSD will offer in terms of performance. This represents a “maximum speed” configuration for the Iomega device and will likely set a new benchmark in the segment. Although just two Gigabit Ethernet ports are available for connectivity (no 10 GbE or USB 3.0), iSCSI and NFS performance should be very respectable. Iomega tells me they will be demonstrating a VMware VDI “boot storm” scenario using a PX6 with SSDs at EMC World next week.

Updated Software

Beyond the hardware, Iomega has revved the LifeLine software stack for performance, features, and integration. Iomega previewed many of these updates in the “Cloud Edition” versions of the IX2 and IX2 products earlier this year. This includes a cleaner interface as well as “Personal Cloud” software for SOHO or small business users.

The Personal Cloud is pretty clever, allowing different devices (StorCenter, IX Cloud, PX, PC and Mac) to share data using a peer-to-peer architecture. Desktop users experience Personal Cloud similar to Dropbox, using Explorer or Finder to mount a volume for drag and drop copies. This Iomega technology can be accessed remotely or scripted for data distribution between locations.

Owners of older Iomega IX devices can’t officially upgrade to Personal Cloud, but I’m told it is possible. Call the support team and ask for help. Sadly, this upgrade is destructive to data, so back up first!

One important change (necessitated by the BYOD option) is that the LifeLine operating system image is stored in (and executed from) flash rather than on the disks. The iSCSI stack finally supports SCSI-3 persistent reservations and trusted domains for clustering, and Iomega also promise that the updated iSCSI target software performs better with simultaneous file and block traffic.

Pricing and Availability

The PX Series is shipping to resellers now, and will be in end-user hands next week. Pricing is up from previous offerings, but still reasonable, especially in BYOD configurations. CDW has an exclusive on the pre-populated models, but others will sell BYOD versions (and the pre-populated arrays after 30 days).

Iomega will continue to sell the IX lineup for SOHO users but will focus on the PX for business and server use cases.

Stephen’s Stance

The StorCenter PX line is a major step forward for Iomega. The BYOD option is welcome, as is SSD performance and improved specs. With official Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Windows Server, and VMware ESX support, the PX is finally up to the task of business computing. We look forward to putting these new devices through their paces in the future!

Strategically, it makes sense for Iomega to segment their “network storage” offerings into the home/home office-oriented IX line and business-focused PX series. I would prefer even stronger differentiation and perhaps the elimination of home media features from the PX line. It pains me to mention it, but perhaps the IX no longer needs iSCSI support, since it was so woefully underpowered and unable to deliver on the promise of block storage. At least these features should be de-emphasized since they don’t appeal to the intended audience of the products.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Iomega StorCenter PX Series Preview
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Features, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Iomega ix4-200d is a sleek 4-drive SOHO RAID system that does just about everything, from NAS to Time Machine to iSCSI for a list price right around $700

Iomega is well into its second coming as EMC’s entry-level storage division. First, they applied EMC’s compact and full-featured LifeLine home storage software to existing gear, giving birth to the Home Media Network Hard Drive, StorCenter ix2, and StorCenter Pro ix4-100. Then they wooed the small-business community with the rack-mount StorCenter ix4-200r, adding iSCSI target support and VMware compatibility.

Today, they are back with the new ix4-200d, probably Iomega’s best product yet. It includes every feature of the rack-mount ix4-200r, including NAS and iSCSI target mode plus great new stuff like one-touch synchronization. All of this is packaged in a Drobo-like desktop system with a starting list price of just $700, or less than half the cost of a comparable ix4-200r!

Desktop Storage

External desktop storage products, exemplified by Western Digital’s wildly successful My Book series, have been a huge retail hit. Priced just over $100, these drives pack a terabyte or more and offer plug and play simplicity. I recently visited a small business with a WD or Seagate USB enclosure on every single desk. I’ve purchased five USB- or FireWire-connected hard drives myself over the last two years!

But these single-drive desktop wonders are a disaster waiting to happen:

• They fail frequently (like my Maxtor 3200), instantly wiping out the data they contained
• They are targets for thieves, so data loss prevention (DLP) experts warn against their use
• They aren’t shareable natively, so most people resort to sneakernet swapping rather than fight with Windows to present them as a network share
• When they’re full, they’re full, forcing the purchase of a whole new drive

Many vendors sell grown-up versions that address some or all of these concerns with multiple drives, network connections, and encryption, but these have been slow to catch on. Since they contain redundant drives and extra hardware and software, they are much more expensive than their little cousins. Iomega has done battle in this arena with their original StorCenter ix2 and the ix4-100, but these have yet to catch on. Even Drobo, with their fanatical user-friendly focus, has failed to convince many buyers.

Then there is the world of business storage. Way down at the bottom of the enterprise storage pyramid lies the realm of small 4- and 8-drive storage arrays. These SMB storage arrays offer a lot of capacity and reliability for the money but very little in the way of features. Iomega’s StorCenter Pro ix4-200r, in contrast, wowed the techies with a full iSCSI target stack that was certified for VMware ESX. But the price, over $1500, definitely limited sales to the home hobbyist.

“Just Right” Storage

Although the name is similar to the StorCenter Pro ix4-200r launched this Spring, Iomega went back to the drawing board for the ix4-200d. They built an entirely new device that could offer the impressive features of their StorCenter Pro line at a price closer to consumer storage offerings. The result boasts everything the Pro has and more at less than half the price:

• You want connectivity? The ix4 sports dual gigabit Ethernet ports that can be teamed up for performance or split off for redundancy.
• You want NAS? The ix4 supports NFS, SMB, and even Apple’s AFP, plus it’s Active Directory compatible.
• How about iSCSI? It’s a full-featured iSCSI target, certified for Microsoft Server 2003 and 2008.
• Want to host virtual machines? The ix4 is certified with VMware ESX 4 vSphere using both NFS and iSCSI, on the Xen HCL, and that Microsoft logo means it will work with Hyper-V as well.
• Need backup? The ix4 comes with EMC’s Retrospect and supports OS X Time Machine over AFP just like an Apple Time Capsule.
• Looking for weird features? How about support for up to 5 Axis network cameras, BlueTooth Picture Transfer Protocol, and UPnP/DLNA media service!
• Iomega also added a new feature, QuickTransfer, to synchronize files between devices.

This is one seriously feature-rich storage system. In fact, this glut of features is the ix4′s Achilles heel: How do you effectively communicate the value of a device that does so much? Most of the buying public has never heard of most of these features, so the price remains hard for some to justify.

Every ix4 configuration comes loaded with four hard disk drives

Another hurdle for the ix4 is Iomega’s decision to fill it with hard drives. One cannot buy an empty ix4-200d, and both the 2 TB and 4 TB configurations come loaded with four hard disk drives. This raises the price of entry and scares off the very techies who might be interested in the device. The majority of Drobos are purchased with no drives at all, and storage geeks like me love the idea that disks can be added as-needed in the future. Although Iomega is open to users swapping out the drives in their own StorCenter device, this is not its intended use case. Iomega’s decision to sell the ix4-200d as a loaded appliance seems counter to the price sensitivity and flexibility needs of buyers.

QuickTransfer: Data Synchronization for Everything

One nifty new feature included with the ix4-200d is QuickTransfer, a one-touch data synchronization capability. Leveraging rsync technology, but hiding this complexity with a more-friendly wizard-based GUI, QuickTransfer allows users to set up synchronization jobs between the ix4 and a variety of targets:

• USB drives can be plugged into one of the three USB 2.0 ports and synchronized with a subset of the content of the ix4. For example, a portable USB drive could be “recharged” with the latest set of data before one heads out of the office.
• Two Iomega ix4′s, or other NAS systems for that matter, can be synchronized over the Ethernet/IP LAN. This would provide a robust and bandwidth-friendly remote office backup or data replication solution.
• A PC or Mac can also be synchronized over a network share, providing a simple alternative to the bundled backup software.

QuickTransfer is exclusive to the ix4-200d for now, but Iomega assured me that it would be included in future StorCenter products and added to the StorCenter Pro ix4-200r in the near future. It is unknown if or when other existing StorCenter devices will get QuickTransfer, however.

Iomega’s Next Move

What will Iomega do next? They must be ready to announce their vSphere 4 and Microsoft Windows Server certification soon, since both company’s web sites already list the device in their compatibility lists. Iomega ought to try to take advantage of the interest among VMware users with a big VMworld splash. They will be there, but it is awfully hard to get noticed at such a large event. I am looking forward to the event to get a hands-on test.

The ix4 should begin showing up for sale at online stores very quickly. Amazon listed the rackmount product within days of its release, and we expect the same this time. But will Iomega offer this cheaper device in retail stores? It would be great to have it available at Staples and Best Buy, but shelf space for a storage system this expensive would be hard to get. Instead, expect it at specialty outlets like Fry’s and perhaps Micro Center.

How much does the StorCenter ix4-200d cost?

• The 2 TB model (SKU# 34546 with four 500 GB drives) lists at $699.99
• The 4 TB model (SKU# 34549 with four 1 TB drives) lists at $899.99
• The 8 TB model (SKU# 34563 with four 2 TB drives) lists at $1,899.99

It also seems likely that the 2-bay product is up for a refresh in the near future. The ix2 can’t be said to be very attractive, so hopefully the company will do something about this with the next-generation product. It is unclear whether the inexpensive 2-bay device will get iSCSI support, but I suspect it will. Beyond this, might Iomega move further upmarket with an 8-drive unit? We shall see!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Iomega’s ix4-200d: A Killer Desktop Storage Array
This post was categorized as Apple, Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Enterprise IT

• Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Your Reliance On Backup Tapes – What’s wrong with backup tapes? They’re inaccessible, making them unsuitable for most applications. My latest post for my Enterprise Storage Strategies blog.
• Is Licensing Turning vSphere Into Vista? – A group post for Gestalt IT suggesting that VMware’s tiered licensing strategy for the vSphere 4 family might cause anguish for customers
• Infosmack Episode 2 – EMC, David Donatelli and Non-Compete Agreements – I joined the StorageMonkeys Infosmack podcast to discuss EMC, Dave Donatelli, and con-compete agreements with Greg Knieriemen, Marc Farley of 3Par and StorageRap, and Tony Asaro of the INI Group
• IT utilities, the biggest game in town – Chris Mellor of The Register suggests that the biggest IT vendors are positioning to lock up the IT market.
• The Non-Compete Clause Debate….. - Steve Duplessie muses on the pros and cons of non-compete agreements and what they mean for the IT industry
• Who’s the pot & who’s the kettle? - W. Curtis Preston reacts to the skirmishes between Tony Asaro and the EMC bloggers
• The Only VMware-certified NAS in its Category: Why the Iomega StorCenter ix4-200r Will Resonate with Small Businesses - Jerome Wendt expands on the Iomega StorCenter Pro ix4-200r
• Don’t focus too much on costs, cloud computing is about business agility - CapGemini reminds us that cloud computing isn’t just about reducing costs
• What we talk about when we talk about cloud computing - The Google Enterprise blog lays down some of the hard facts about building a cloud on your own
• Review: Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage System - Chris Evans provides one of the best reviews yet of Sun’s Amber Road open source-based storage systems
• Brocade Pokes Cisco in the Eye, Switches for IBM - A great headline and solid reporting by Om Malik on one of the first reactions to Cisco UCS
• TheInfoPro: Analysis or Marketing? - StorageMonkeys continues their probing of the storage analyst community
• A “Tweeterview” with Stephen Foskett, Nirvanix Consulting Director - Sunshine interviews me about Nirvanix, storage, and my new role

Apple

• Achieving Email Bliss with IMAP, Gmail, and Apple Mail – A deep, long post on GMail, IMAP, Mac OS X Mail, and how to get all three to play nicely together.
• Monitor Your Mac Remotely With iStat for iPhone - I love iStat for Mac OS X and the iPhone and had been meaning to write a review. This AppleBlog post is just about what I might have written!

Life

• There Goes Chrysler – NPR’s awesome Planet Money blog reported the breaking news of Chrysler’s bankruptcy
• The Venture Capital Math Problem and The Venture Capital Math Problem (continued) – Fred Wilson points out that there can be no such thing as unlimited venture capital
• Is it time to cut the Ethernet access cable? – Has pervasive wireless Ethernet made wired ports unnecessary?
• Interview with Micah Baldwin, Father of FollowFriday – Micah calls me out as someone who is doing interesting things on Twitter!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Content From the Week of May 2, 2009
This post was categorized as Everything. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Iomega's StorCenter Pro ix4-100 is VMware certified, hot swappable, and not bad to look at!

As I expected, EMC’s Iomega subsidiary today rolled out the StorCenter Pro ix4-100 a big brother to the popular but plain StorCenter ix2 NAS device. This new model add hot-swappable drives (there are four now), RAID-5, and a longer warranty to make it suitable for small office use. It uses a blacked-out version of the chassis from the non-LifeLine StorCenter Pro 150d.

Like the ix2, the Pro ix4 is certified for VMware ESX using NFS. iSCSI is still absent, though EMC folks have talked about adding this in short order.

This is the third member of the LifeLine-powered NAS family from Iomega: The confusingly-named single-drive Home Media Network Hard Disk Drive, the dual-drive StorCenter ix2, and this four-drive StorCenter Pro ix4-100. The “-100″ nomenclature suggests that more 4-drive models might be on the way, perhaps a “-200″ model sharing its rackmount chassis with the existing non-LifeLine StorCenterPro 200rl.

With NetApp exiting the small-business market by ending their StoreVault line, who would have thought big old EMC would be the one to step up? At $799 or $1,299 for the 2 and 4 TB versions, the ix4 is about the same price as a Drobo, which is $749 or $999 plus $199 for the DroboShare NAS.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | EMC LifeLine Spreads To The Iomega StorCenter Pro ix4-100
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Zip drives like this 1996 parallel-port example made Iomega famous, but EMC is giving the company a second act

Pity poor old Iomega. The company responsible for hot products like the Zip drive and coulda-beens like the Clik drive was stumbling in the early part of this decade, unable to distinguish itself from all of the other providers of commodity external storage devices for consumers. Although the company had built the Zip into a viable floppy drive successor, USB “thumb drives” took that market by storm, replacing removable disks with flash memory.

The company was working to break into the small business market in the middle of this decade, offering Rev disk-based backup, small desktop and rack-mount NAS servers, and internet storage in addition to well-regarded software add-ins. But by that time, Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital had come to dominate the external USB drive market, and Lexar, PNY, and the like had taken over the removable world.

Then EMC stepped in with their March, 2008, $178 million buyout offer. Iomega rebuffed the offer at first, since it was in the process of being merged with China’s Excelstor. But after some apparently tough back and forth between the companies, Iomega finally accepted a $213 million offer in early April, completing the acquisition in June. Although it made sense for EMC to move down-market, as Cisco did with their similar Linksys acquisition, many wondered how this would work out, especially when one considers the contentious buyout process.

We needn’t have worried – ever since the EMC buyout, Iomega has rocketed forward, introducing intriguing new products, finding synergies within EMC, and gaining mindshare. Although they still peddle commodity storage, Iomega’s new line of EMC-powered NAS systems is getting the real attention (VMware geeks especially should take a hard look at the StorCenter ix2!) But the company ought to make a few marketing changes if it is to really succeed.

EMC Throws a Lifeline

Without a doubt, it was EMC’s LifeLine software that injected the most adrenalin into Iomega. Although it predated the acquisition, LifeLine is a perfect fit for Iomega: It’s a Linux-based NAS operating system with RAID, Retrospect backup, integrated media services (compatible with iTunes, Xbox, Wii, and UPnP), print services, and unusual features like Picture Transfer Protocol, Bluetooth, and Axis surveillance storage.

It’s a great combination of home features, and Iomega quickly launched a product including this software: the StorCenter ix2. Although Iomega had used the StorCenter brand name for years on a variety of NAS devices, the ix2 was the first to use EMC’s LifeLine software. The combination of Iomega, LifeLine, and Retrospect makes for a compelling home product, and many a “terabyte home” is switching to the platform. But the product’s inherited industrial design is plain (one blogger suggested it had a Wife Acceptance Factor issue), and the naming is confusing. A casual shopper would have no way of differentiating the various StorCenter products – indeed, it is difficult for me to figure out the various product lines from Iomega’s sales-oriented web site!

Predictably, Iomega is expanding their LifeLine-powered lineup both down- and up-market. The company recently introduced a smaller single-drive LifeLine-powered home NAS device, and we are hearing rumors of larger office-oriented versions. But the little guy also uses hand-me-down clothes, and is tagged with a mouthful of a name that is at once inconsistent and forgettable: Home Media Network Hard Drive. The average consumer would have no way of knowing what lurks under the skin of this home NAS, since it looks exactly like the basic USB-connected Prestige line! Why can’t the company that gave us the pretty eGo drive design something a little more attractive – check out what the competition is offering!

Moving On Up

Although their home-oriented offerings are compelling, VMware geeks should keep their eye on the upscale uses of the LifeLine platform! It hasn’t been officially announced, but EMC folks are saying that iSCSI will be added to LifeLine in short order. And the platform is already VMware certified!

Interested in building your own VMware lab? Pick up an ix2 and use NFS until the iSCSI software is added. It’s on the HCL, and makes an excellent platform for playing around with ESX! Plus, you can stream iTunes and store webcam video of your door at the same time!

Although the rest of the StorCenter line isn’t currently LifeLine powered, I’m sure it’ll be upgraded in short order. It might not be powerful enough for real enterprise computing, but a small office or lab would be well served by EMC’s kid-brother systems.

Although Iomega’s latest offerings are compelling, the company really needs to do something about its marketing. Ditch the bland and confusing names and cases and come up with something really compelling. Let buyers know which systems are LifeLine-powered and transform the web site from an online store into a site that draws attention to the unique features of these systems. Although EMC’s products might sell themselves, the consumer / prosumer / small business market is a tough one, as Iomega must already know.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | EMC Makes Iomega Relevant Again
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.