Seagate, a leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, has unveiled a new portfolio of networked attached storage (NAS) solutions that will be easy for businesses to set up and manage without dedicated IT staff.

In a move to empower small and medium-sized enterprises in the Middle East with more flexible IT storage capabilities, the new portfolio includes five products suited for home office or small businesses with up to 50 employees, said a statement.

Ramon Ray of SmallBiz Technology, said: “Storage is a must have for businesses of today regardless of their size or industry. So much of what businesses do is now stored in a digital format, but at the same time storage is an area that may not be top of mind for many small business professionals. The irony is that smart storage is so essential to their growth.

“It is good to see a company like Seagate taking the guess work out of network storage solutions and making it easy to set up and manage for a small business without dedicated IT staff.”

The Seagate NAS and Seagate NAS Pro lines set the standard for ease-of-use by introducing a new intuitive operating system, NAS OS 4, together with hardware specifically designed for small businesses. The latest products come in a range of storage capacities from 2TB to 30TB.

Scott Horn, vice president of global marketing at Seagate, said: “We understand that today’s small businesses can benefit from a storage solution that is easy to manage and provides 24/7 secure access to the information that drives their businesses.

“From the individual contractor to the fifty-employee office, Seagate has the right product to match the needs of any size of small- to medium-sized business.”

In the Middle East and Africa, IT infrastructure spending on storage, server, and enterprise networking equipment is forecast to reach $3.47 billion this year, a 4.1 per cent increase from last year, according to Gartner.

In UAE in particular, planned legislation aiming to boost the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises will require 10 per cent of future federal government contracts to be awarded to SMEs, increasing the demand for scalable storage solutions.

The new NAS OS 4 will include the most demanded features by our customers including App Manager and Seagate Sdrive for remote access.

All products in Seagate’s NAS portfolio are wholly developed and supported by Seagate, which ensures a level of expertise that is not delivered when customers are required to source individual components, said the statement.

The NAS HDDs have been designed specifically for network storage applications, and are equipped with advanced vibration tolerance and management capabilities, offering enhanced reliability compared to standard desktop hard drives.

Meanwhile, the Seagate NAS and NAS Pro provide secure access to files by creating a private cloud, also enabling access to files from a centralised location, while providing shared access for clients and partners through Seagate Sdrive software – a private cloud that physically resides on Seagate NAS. - TradeArabia News Service