D-Link Enhances Business Storage Portfolio with New ShareCenter Pro Unified Storage Solutions for Small and Medium Businesses

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- D-Link, the cost-effective, standards-based unified networking solutions provider for small business and medium enterprise IT environments, today announced  the ShareCenter Pro® network storage solutions supporting concurrent NAS and iSCSI connectivity, designed for small and medium-sized business environments.  With the ShareCenter Pro N-Series and S-Series models, D-Link has expanded its business storage offerings to deliver cost-effective unified storage solutions with built-in security, data protection, and disaster recovery functionality ideal for file sharing, data backup and IP video archival, to complement their existing xStack® Storage family of high performance iSCSI SAN arrays.  

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D-Link Delivers High-End Features and Complete Networking Solution

According to Gartner, the top storage priorities for small businesses center on data security, backup and disaster recovery.  And, of the small businesses that are deploying network storage, approximately 50 percent rely on NAS solutions and 30 percent rely on iSCSI connectivity.(1)  D-Link ShareCenter Pro storage solutions offer the best of both worlds – high-end NAS features and performance often found in more costly SAN arrays, including iSCSI connectivity to support small business server applications, dual Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports, snapshots, encrypted volumes, virtual disk drive (VDD) expansion and remote backup.  In addition, the ShareCenter Pro models are Windows, Mac and Linux compatible, and come with a five-year warranty (vs. the typical one-to-three year warranty) as well as an extended five-year warranty option for a total of 10 years, offering industry leading ease-of-integration and support.

Gerrit Koester, technology and facilities manager at the Filutowski Cataract & LASIK Institute in Orlando, Fla., was tasked with optimizing and managing a network infrastructure that ensured quick and easy access to over 100,000 patient records containing over two million electronic image files.  "What I needed was a highly available, redundant storage solution offering easy backup and iSCSI support," said Koester.

After evaluating the D-Link ShareCenter Pro DNS-1200-05, Koester was extremely surprised by the performance the solution achieved, as well as the flexibility and affordable price. Koester said, "We should get great speeds, probably as good as USB 2.0, maybe 40 megabytes a second, give or take. We got well over a hundred, and I said, 'Wow, this is faster than some of the SANs we've evaluated. This is a phenomenal product and is truly cutting edge, but it is using existing technologies in a smart way that makes it very easy to configure, and it guarantees that it is going to be reliable."

D-Link Unified Networking Solutions

D-Link understands that small and medium-businesses have limited IT resources and staff, and provides these companies with end-to-end networking solutions to ensure interoperability, ease of integration and a single support call for troubleshooting. D-Link can offer small and medium-sized businesses scalability, reliability, performance, and lower initial and ongoing costs. Through D-Link's superior economic model, businesses can leverage these affordable networking and storage solutions in multi-vendor IT infrastructures without being locked into proprietary hardware, software or service requirements.

"Small businesses evaluating network storage often have a checklist of the latest 'must have' features, but need to realize that reliability, data protection and network interoperability are paramount," said Joseph Martins, managing director and analyst, Data Mobility Group. "The D-Link ShareCenter Pro models support non-proprietary hardware in a unified system with NAS and iSCSI support for added flexibility, ease of use and cost savings."

Disaster Recovery Via the Cloud

D-Link ShareCenter Pro N-Series and S-Series models offer disaster recovery capabilities for remote backup, either to a physical device offsite or to the Cloud using Amazon's S3 service. This is the latest in a series of D-Link technologies leveraging Cloud to bring enterprise features within reach of SMB budgets.

"D-Link is committed to meeting the storage needs of small and medium-businesses, as well as educators and government agencies, and is continually developing products to best meet the unique needs and challenges these organizations face," said Chris Gruber, director of product marketing, Storage Solutions, D-Link.  "D-Link designed these unified storage products to provide secure file sharing, data backup and IP video archival capabilities, as well as disaster recovery via the cloud, combining high-level technology features in an affordable package."

ShareCenter Pro Network Storage Solutions N-Series and S-Series Features

The ShareCenter Pro N-Series includes the DNS-1100-04 and the DNS-1200-05 devices.  Both models offer iSCSI connectivity, (2) GbE ports, (2) USB ports, RAID 0/1/5/6/10 support, encrypted volumes, and virtual disk drive (VDD) expansion. The DNS-1100-04 4-bay desktop offers 512MB of RAM and supports up to 12TB of raw capacity, and the DNS-1200-05 5-bay desktop offers 1GB of RAM with support up to 15TB of storage.

The ShareCenter Pro S-Series includes the DNS-1250-04 4-bay desktop, DNS-1250-06 6-bay desktop and the DNS-1550-04 4-bay 1U rackmount. Designed for optimum performance, all three models offer iSCSI connectivity, (2) GB of RAM, (2) GbE ports, (5) USB ports, RAID 0/1/5/6/10, encrypted volumes, and VDD expansion. The D-Link DNS-1250-06 offers RAID 30/50 capabilities, and the D-Link DNS-1550-04 offers dual hot-swappable power supplies for added redundancy.

Pricing & Availability

All of D-Link's network storage products are sold through D-Link's vast network of channel partners, including value-added resellers, solution providers and distributors. Availability and pricing information for the ShareCenter Pro N-Series is as follows:

• D-Link DNS-1100-04 ShareCenter Pro 1100 – available in October for $662.99*
• D-Link DNS-1200-05 ShareCenter Pro 1200 is available now for $773.49*

Availability and pricing information for the ShareCenter Pro S-Series models is as follows:

• D-Link DNS-1250-04 ShareCenter Pro 1250 will be available in October for $972.99*
• D-Link DNS-1250-06 ShareCenter Pro 1250 will be available in October for $1,172.99*
• D-Link DNS-1550-04 ShareCenter Pro 1550 will be available in September  for $1,499.99*

Detailed specifications for current ShareCenter Pro Network Storage solutions are available at www.dlink.com.  

About D-Link

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2011, D-Link is the global leader in connectivity for home, small business, mid- to large-sized enterprise environments, and service providers. An award-winning designer, developer, and manufacturer, D-Link implements and supports unified network solutions that integrate capabilities in switching, wireless, broadband, storage, IP Surveillance, and cloud-based network management.  For more information visit www.dlink.com, www.dlink.ca or connect with D-Link on Facebook (www.facebook.com/dlink) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/dlink).

ShareCenter, D-Link and the D-Link logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of D-Link Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other third-party marks mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright © 2011.D-Link. All Rights Reserved.

*Estimated street price

(1) Gartner User Survey Analysis: Why Small-Business Storage Is a Tough Sell, February 2011

SOURCE D-Link