14 DAY TRIAL // Storage devices come in many shapes, sizes and roles, and QNAP Systems figured it was time for one of the less popular combinations of those three factors to be put into effect.
By less popular we mean to say less commonly announced, not that the type of network-attached storage devices is looked down upon.
The Turbo NAS series covers many sorts of consumers, but the two latest additions have the 1U rackmount form factor.
That means they are very wide and long, but very flat as well. It allows them to seamlessly meld with server systems. QNAP reckons they are good for small and medium businesses and workgroups.
The names of the two products are TS-421U and TS-420U. Both of them have four drive bays and use the Marvell 6282 CPU, 1 GB of DDR3 RAM, two Gigabit LAN ports and two USB 3.0 ports. Two e-SATA ports are part of the spec sheet as well.
The difference is that the Marvell CPU operates at 2 GHz in the TS-421U but only 1.6 GHz in the TS-420U.
"The TS-421U and TS-420U satisfy the requirements of SMB and workgroup users who desire high performance networked storage with low acquisition cost but won't compromise on reliability and features," said Laurent Cheng, product manager of QNAP.
"They deliver high performance coupled with a broad range of business-ready applications."
Data backup technologies, like Real-Time Remote Replication (RTRR) for real-time or scheduled data backup, are installed on both Turbo NAS systems. The list of backup and security features goes on and on really.
As for ease of use, QNAP NetBak Replicator utility is available for Windows PCs, while Apple Time Machine will help iOS users (Mac owners).
Business customers will have to call QNAP or meet with company representatives to negotiate prices. The higher the order, the smaller the bulk price will get.