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procom's nru,ae 100
diamond multimedia's rio PMP3300
rimage producer 2000 protege
microtech systems' imageautomator
The network-attached storage (NAS) industry has blossomed from a read-only market to include read/write solutions as well. And one-time CD-only NAS solution provider Procom Technology has jumped into the fray with a killer RAID system tailored for the midrange-the NetForce 100. In comparison with other NAS players, the NetForce 100 is a serious contender for middleweight champion, offering high-end features for a middle-range price. While Meridian Data's SnapServer weighs in at under $1,500 for 18GB of storage, and the Network Appliance F720 offers 1 OGB at under $150,000, the NetForce 100 provides a 65GB system for $11,000.
It is the NetForce's combination of performance with high reliability features that made us take note of the system. Procom has come through with improved NAS I/O speed with the kind of data protection previously only available at the high end-redundant components, full RAID 5 support, and effective remote management. All this in a spiffy decorator black cabinet-no more office gray.
a gift to be simple
Procom claims a setup time of under five minutes for the NetForce, and the claim proved true in our installation. Procom has done a wonderful job of simplifying its install process compared with the older CD-ROM tower we reviewed a year ago. The NetForce 100 gave us absolutely no trouble at all in getting up and running and recognized by client workstations. (We've had NT servers that were harder to find with Network Neighborhood.) The install would have gone even faster had we had a DHCP server on our network, as many sites do, to eliminate the need to define an IP address. Since we didn't, this stage proved a two-step process.
The first was at the unit itself, where we typed in the IP address for the unit using arrow keys. We then moved to a workstation and ran the remaining setup step on a browser. This included volume, password, time/date, and identification configuration. (The NetForce requires Netscape Navigator v4.06 or IE 4.0 or higher.) One item we noted: the quick setup page using the browser runs under several earlier versions of Netscape, but the management console will not.
When we finished, the system was running...