ioSafe knocks it Out of the Park Again with the Solo G3

Here at hddfiresafe.com, we are dedicated to bringing our customers the safest, most affordable hard drives and data backup equipment for computers available. Our devotion to that policy means we do more than simply stock ioSafe hard drives , we help you meet your goals for preserving and protecting your most valuable data.

A California based company; ioSafe is the leading manufacturer of disaster proof hard drives. Their systems are optimized to protect against such threats as fire and water damage and the company is on a mission to help you backup your data wherever it may sit vulnerable.. They have built increasingly secure and cutting edge designs and we are proud to represent ioSafe as a leading distributor and dealership with products such as the; ioSafe Solo, ioSafe SSD Titanium, the ioSafe SoloPRO and many more.

ioSafe has a new product and we’re excited to show it to you; the ioSafe Solo G3 Hard Drive.

ioSafe has taken their best features and put them in the G3. Storage space, weather protection, data backup, a great warranty and wrapped it up in a new fanless design for nearly silent operation. This design makes the G3 hard drive ideal for home offices, in your home entertainment setup or in the professional recording studio; let’s take a look at the features and technical specs.

The G3 can protect its data from temperatures of up to 1550 Fahrenheit for up to thirty minutes with its DataCast endothermic fire insulation technology. The DataCast creates a chemical bond with water molecules that, when temperatures go above 160 degrees, will release water vapor that will limit the internal temperature of the G3 to protect data in extreme fire disasters. The fire rating meets the stringent ASTM E119 standard. The flipside to fire is water and ioSafe has your data protected from any spill (think coffee, soda or beer) as well as fire hoses and natural disasters such as flood. The HydroSafe water barrier technology allows the G3 to protect your data even if it’s been dunked in up to 10ft of water (fresh or salt) for up to 72 hours. While HydroSafe is keeping your data dry, it’s also helping to dissipate heat during the unit’s normal operations. Which brings us to the G3’s fan-less and near silent cooling system; ioSafe’s FloSafe airflow cooling technology is designed to be quiet and not to overwhelm an office environment with background noise.

The disaster proof protection isn’t all based around weather situations. The G3 comes with a Kensington lock slot. This anti-theft tab will allow you to easily secure the unit to any surface found in the home or the office. Not only will the tab protect the unit in case of a break-in, it will also secure the G3 and keep it immobile in case of an earthquake or other such disaster. It is also compatible with all Kensington locks. This solid theft-prevention works well with the great warranty; if the G3 stops working for any reason during the warranty period, it will be replaced or repaired.

One of the reasons that ioSafe is so popular is the  Data Recovery Service.

The DRS provides you with a safety net in case of virtually any disaster. Here is what you get with G3 plan:

1.  One time use, no questions asked, data recovery service

2. Up to $1000 of forensic data recovery

3. Mail-in repair coverage with free global shipping

4. Only one point of contact – you get direct access to ioSafe experts

5. Replacement hardware that is pre-loaded with recovered data

The G3 comes with a three-year limited warranty which includes one free year of DRS. Both the data recovery service and warranty can be expanded up to five years.

The G3 unit has multi-platform compatibility with both PCs and Macs. It has a single disk with up to 2TB storage capacity. It has USB 3.0 which is backward compatible with USB 2.0 and has a data transfer rate of 5Gbit/s. The power consumption is <25W and the voltage is at 80~264 VAC at 50/60 HZ. The unit only weighs 15 lbs. so it’s very easy to change locations and its dimensions are 5”W, 7.1”H and 11”L, compact and easy to store above, below or in a workstation.

The G3 is perfect for any number of assignments or environments. You can use it for storing media, PC and laptop backup and supplement online backup. Setting it up in the workplace will allow you to protect your customer’s data and improve the efficiency of your office. Using the G3 at home provides the ultimate protection for your personal files, family memories and your media library.

Our team will continue to help you in choosing the best products for your needs. Remember, don’t just think of storage capacity when you buy  a hard drive, think of protection and safety!

 

Written by

Joseph Fowler

www.hddfiresafe.com

Today, we live in a world that is increasingly reliant upon digital storage solutions. It is convenient, cost-effective, and an efficient way to store our data.

However, it’s not infallible. When good drives go bad, we pray that they might somehow fix themselves, but more often than not, when the files we lose are of great importance to us, we turn to professionals to try and recover the data for us.

A data recovery service is a very specialized, hi-tech service that uses the latest forensic data recovery techniques to attempt to restore files on hard drives that have been compromised due to mechanical wear, environmental damage, or human error.  They use dust free clean rooms to avoid contaminating your data, highly specialized recovery tools, and a staff of exceedingly well-trained experts.

Sounds expensive, right? Well, it is.  The amount that you pay will vary on a case to case basis because there are many factors to take into account when estimating the true cost of a data recovery service. For instance, the capacity of your hard drive, and the amount of data you want restored. Additional considerations include how much physical damage your hard drive has sustained, whether or not the file system is still intact, or simply the complexity of the work involved.

At Drive Savers, an average single drive recovery will cost around $1500, but it can cost as much as $3000. Disk Doctors charge $1000 for a 500 GB hard drive without physical damage, but their prices rise further with higher capacity drives, or those with mechanical failures. However, the fees do not always end there. Disc evaluations can be as much as $200, shipping to and from the recovery facility is not cheap, and the cost of replacement media, or an expedited service, will almost always cost you more.

With an ioSafe hard drive you can forget about the crippling costs associated with a data recovery service, because ioSafe includes this free of charge with every hard drive it sells. This “no questions asked” service covers you for up to $5000 of forensic data recovery, for any loss, for any reason.

They have a free global shipping system that will whisk your drive off to a secure location so that it can be worked on to revive your lost files. When the work is complete, ioSafe will replace your hard drive, free of charge, and ship it back to you with all the data that it was able to recover.

"The ioSafe “no questions asked” service covers you for up to $5000 of forensic data recovery, for any loss, for any reason."

ioSafe’s line of disaster proof hard drives truly provide you with a guaranteed defense against all eventualities. These storage solutions are tough, and built to last, and it is good to know that even if the unforeseen does happen, and you end up losing data through human error or some other means, the ioSafe Data Recovery Service is there to help.

Call or email us today for a quote on ioSafe hard drives for your business. They are the protection you simply cannot do without.

You’ve got a Project Coming Up and We Can Help

If you work in a medical office, chances are that you’re familiar with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). It exists to protect the health insurance of people who lose their jobs. One of its provisions protects the privacy and security of health data.

A recent change to HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economical and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) occurred as part of the American Recovery and

Reinvestment Act of 2009. It implements new rules for the accounting and disclosure of a patient’s health information and profile. It extends the current requirements for keeping track and protecting electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic medical records (EMRs). It is one of the most sweeping changes since HIPAA was created. The new rule is that when medical offices use ERHs, the time-frame for making sure the privacy concerns are up to HIPAA standards has been

lowered from six years to three. That means if your office has a HIPAA compliance plan in the works, the time-frame must be accelerated.

The rules state that you must be able to provide the patient with their medical records within 30 days of the request. You also must disclose the medical information to legal

agencies when required to do so by the law. You must make the patient aware of any use of the medical information and correct it as needed. Penalties for the failure of observing these rules can be harsh. This year, UCLA was forced to pay $865,500 in a settlement regarding HIPAA violations.

Among your preparations for protecting your patients information is choosing the right hardware for the job. You need equipment that stand against accidents, natural disasters and theft. We think that you can’t go wrong with ioSafe products.

IoSafe offers many different products that can fit your security needs. If you’re looking for a portable unit for the safe, physical transfer of data between workstations or other locations then the Rugged Portable hard drive line is for you. These portable hard drives live up their name with such features as the Full Metal Jacket crush protection; with it the Rugged can withstand the force of 2500 lbs. (aluminum shell) or 5000 lbs. (titanium alloy). With its immersion protection, it can be dunked in water for three days without the data within being damaged. It also features chemical protection, shock protection, altitude protection and theft protection. Given the need for secure data transfer, you should be aware of the Genie Timeline Pro backup software and encryption software. Equally important are the Data Recovery Service plans that available with most ioSafe products. This service provides the client with forensic data recovery and new hardware.

For workstation placement, the hard drive called the ioSafe SoloPRO is excellent for office environments.  With the latest USB technology and blinding fast data transfer speeds, these models are excellent for the movement and protection of patient health records. The 1TB SoloPRO is waterproof and fireproof and is Mac and PC compatible. Its connectivity allows it to hook-up to NAS networks and it comes with the Data Recovery Service. There are SSD and 3TB models.

The ioSafe Solo is another great choice for keeping records safe. The 1TB model is fireproof, waterproof and has USB 2.0 connectivity. It is PC and Mac compatible and comes with a Data Recovery Service plan with $1000 worth of forensic data recovery. There are also 1.5TB and 2TB models. IoSafe isn’t just about hard drives; they also provide other methods of keeping data secure. Hard drive, business and data safes are also available.

New laws and regulations will always come along and it’s part of your responsibility to your patients that you keep up with and abide by them. HDDfiresafe.com and ioSafe can give you the tools to make this job easier.

Understanding Information Security Standards

One of the things we want to do here at HDDfirsafe.com is to help you understand some of the work and regulations that go into the systems you use every day. The product s and systems a person uses have all been put through various tests and standards to make sure they perform to the level that they advertise to. Many of these tests and standards are concerned with safety and product quality. Computer systems, security functions most importantly, are especially scrutinized.  In the modern age, the most important concern is the protection of data and businesses that manage and hold the personal, financial or health data of their clients are required by law to make sure that they are protecting this data.

One of the ways they do this is by making sure their computer systems run at a national or internationally recognized standard. The ability to put the sticker of approval from one of these organizations is proof that you’re taking care of business or if you see it at a company you’re doing business, you should feel more assured of your data’s safety.

Let’s look at a couple of examples of standards that you would use in your business or as a consumer, be protected by without even knowing about it.

ISO 17799/27002: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an acclaimed international body which sets various worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards. Headquartered in Switzerland, it was founded in 1947 and does the bulk of its work through over 2700 technical committees, subcommittees and working groups. They sell their standards across the world and 162 countries are voluntary members of this organization. ISO standards are so common-place that they have become part of some product’s designation; many CD images end with the extension “ISO” to indicate that they are using the ISO 9660 standard file system.

One of their increasingly important standards is ISO 17799/27002 which is a widely accepted standard for information security management. It is intended to serve as a single reference point for indentifying the range of controls needed for most situations where information systems are used in the commercial or industrial sense by large, medium or small businesses.

If your company purchases the 17799/27002, you’ll receive a generic guide on how to implement information security procedures in your business. The standard is very comprehensive. It will go over such topics as risk assessment and treatment, security policies, organization of information security, asset management, human, physical and environmental security, media handling, communications and much more. You’ll be able to set up the standard and tailor it to your unique needs. After that, you’ll be able to contact any number of accredited groups to look over your plan and tell you if meets ISO standards. This standard grew out up the requirements devised for ISO/IEC 27001 and revised edition should be released in 2012. Here is an in-depth guide that will tell you more about the standard.

ISO/IEC 27001: This standard is a formal set of specifications against which organizations can seek independent certification of their Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). An ISMS is a set of policies concerned with information security or IT related risks. The main idea behind this principle is that a company should design, implement and maintain a coherent set of policies, systems and processes to manage risks to its information assets. The 27001 covers all types of businesses, from mom ‘n’ pop shops to multinational corporations. Its use covers many bases; to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, identification and clarifying existing security methods and how they can be improved. 27001 are also used by external and internal auditors to of organizations to demonstrate security policies of a company.

The main goal of the standard is to organize all security efforts under ISMS, in this sense it is broader than the ISO 17799/27002 which provides a detailed plan for security management. The 27001 is like the standard which allows you to shape your other plans. A good bet would be to use both standards together and get positive overlap.

It is a very popular standard, over 7300 organizations worldwide have certified as compliant with ISO/IEC 27001. There are mandatory requirements for certification of the 27001 and many accredited agencies which you can use to perform the service. Here is an in-depth guide to ISO/IEC 27001; it will give a full account of the standard and applying it.

Common Criteria: This system is another approach to data security.  The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (Common Criteria or CC) is an international standard for computer security certification. It is a framework with which a computer system user can specify their security functional and assurance needs. With it a company can make a claim about the security attributes of their products and an outside testing laboratory can evaluate that claim. The CC provides assurance that the testing was done in a proper and rigorous manner.

The CC grew out three different standards; ITSEC from Europe, CTCPEC from Canada and the TCSEC from the U.S. Department of Defense. What makes it different from the ISO standards is that CC is used more commonly on products. To evaluate the claim the CC uses protection profiles, security targets, security functional requirements, security assurance requirements, evaluation assurance levels.

Common Criteria has been used on many products; such as access control devices, biometric systems, smart cards, operating systems and databases. Here is a complete list of products. There has been some criticism that the CC is too costly and that there is too much focus on documentation rather than actual security. CC continues to be updated and is currently in the 3.1 version. This is the official website of the Common Criteria Project, a good resource if you wish to learn more.

Another measure that you and your company can take to increase data security is to have more secured hard drives. IoSafe’s SoloPRO series of external hard drives are excellent choices because of the rugged protection they offer. The physical and data protection is top-notch. Take the 1 TB SoloPRO eSATA/USB 2.0 Desktop Hard Drive for example. With its environmental protection systems, it’s prepared for any real-world threat from fire, flood, shock, impact, chemical or air fan failure. The Data Recovery Service is a great safety net for a data management program. It’s a three year plan (upgrades available) where you have up to $2500 worth of forensic data recovery and advanced replacement in case of an internal error or system crash. It’s a back-up for your back-up plan. The eSTATA/USB 2.0 connectivity works with a NAS network and would be a niche in your data management system.

IoSafe products can provide the physical anchor for your new system of data management. At HDDFiresafe.com, we believe in covering all the bases and ioSafe will help you do that.

These standards and certifications can truly help your business. ISO can help you protect your data and Common Criteria can help you make better products. Each is an investment, of both time and money but doing so will benefit your company in the long run.

Written by:

Joseph Fowler

Dental & Medical Offices

If you work in a dentists or medical office, then you’re very familiar with the next words; forms, paperwork, lab results, electronic medical records, doctor’s notes, etc. Managing the health needs of even a small group of people can be a daunting task. Not only is it your responsibility to organize and use that data to protect and improve a patient’s health information, by ethics and the law it’s your responsible to keep that data safe and secure.

Your office deals with confidential patient information that falls under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability act of 1996 (HIPAA) and according to this law, you are required to put administrative, technical and physical safeguards on that patient information. Usually, discussing that means making sure no one steals files, sells patient information or accidently transmits patient data over an unsafe line.

What about simple accidents or natural disasters or a fire in your building? These occurrences can destroy or corrupt your data just as easily and you need to plan for them. You need disaster-proof/secure hard drives and HDDfiresafe.com has a couple of great models for your office. They’re from the ioSafe, a company that pioneered disaster-proof computer equipment.

The first ioSafe products we would like you to look at are the Rugged Portable line. Fireproof, shockproof, waterproof and near bulletproof. The Rugged Portable models are a wonderful option for office use. It is fit for usage in any workstation or as a mobile unit, perfect for meetings and transferring data between sites and servers. The ioSafe 250GB Rugged Portable Hard Drive with 5K RPM and USB 3.0 is an excellent model. Its fast connection speeds can go up to 5 GB/s and it includes Genie Timeline Pro backup software with a TrueCrypt encryption program. It supports both Macs and PCs and comes in either aluminum or titanium enclosures. The environmental protection package covers virtually every type of disaster; fire, flood, altitudes up to 15,000 feet, chemical exposure and shock protection. It has been approved by such industry leaders as PCWorld, MacWorld and ARS Technica.

One of the best features is the Data Recovery Service (DRS). This ioSafe standard feature is the ultimate safety net for hard drives. The 250GB model comes with a three year plan and up to $5000 of forensic data recovery. In the rare event that something would get past the Rugged’s outer shell, you will be covered. There are also 500GB, 750GB and SSD models available.

The ioSafe SoloPRO External Hard Drive line is a great choice for the office environment. It’s not as portable as the Rugged line but it’s just as tough and dependable; it’s perfect for any workstation or for server duties. It provides unparalleled data protection with neck-breaking connectivity speeds. The 1TB SoloPRO e STATA/USB 2.0 Desktop Hard Drive is the perfect example of the line. It is Microsoft Server, Linux, Mac and PC compatible and it has the ability to connect to NAS servers.

It has a one year DRS plan with up to $1000 of forensic data recovery (upgrades to three and five year plans are available). The environmental protection is top-shelf. You could dunk the SoloPRO in ten feet of water for 72 hours and your data would still be safe and its fire protection ensures that it can in temperatures of up to 1550 Fahrenheit for up to 30 minutes. The Active Airflow Cooling design ensures that the hard drives will run in optimum condition.

The SoloPRO has the latest in USB technology, its play data transfer can go up to 5 GB/s and the eSTATA interface provides quick and clean access to servers. SoloPRO provides further physical protection with a Kensington security slot as a standard feature that is available with a floor mount or cable lock. There are also 2TB, 3TB and SSD models available and the SoloPRO line has $50 and $100 mail-in rebate deals available and most models are on sale now.

IoSafe products are the perfect choice for your medical office. They provide layers of security for your patients and peace of mind for your staff. Protecting data is no less essential than protecting the client it represents.

Written by:

Joseph Fowler

HDDfiresafe.com

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, (HIPAA), heralded the arrival of much stricter standards for the electronic storage, or transmission, of protected health information, (PHI). It forced medical practices to take a hard look at their policies, procedures, and electronic infrastructure, but it also left many wondering exactly how they were going to ensure their businesses were compliant with these new regulations.

Technology can be unpredictable. For instance, have you ever had a virus on your computer? These nasty pieces of malicious software can quickly cause a lot of damage and may end up damaging or deleting your important PHI records. So, it is essential that you back up your information to a reliable external device like the ioSafe SoloPRO. This way you can be sure that your files are backed up to a dependable source and you will always have a copy when you need them.

However, the SoloPRO is not just secure, it’s tough too. ioSafe’s technicians have engineered this revolutionary hard drive to withstand some of the harshest conditions you can imagine. This fireproof and waterproof device will protect your data from being submerged in water for up to 72 hours, and will shield it from temperatures up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit. This level of physical security is unmatched by anyone else in the industry, and is yet another way that your medical practice can use the ioSafe SoloPRO to meet HIPAA regulations.

The SoloPro also supports many forms of encryption software. Once encrypted, you can be sure that anyone who tries to steal your data will be sorely disappointed. This protects your PHI records and severely limits who has access to them. The SoloPRO even comes with a Kensington lock slot so that you can securely tether your hard drive and deter opportunistic thieves.

Its usefulness does not end here, because every ioSafe SoloPRO external hard drive comes complete with a data recovery service that covers you for up to $2,500 of forensic data recovery. This “no questions asked” service covers all eventualities, regardless of how you managed to lose the data on the drive. If needed, ioSafe will recover any and all data they can, and will even ship it back to you on a replacement device just like the one you purchased.

So, if you’re looking for an affordable, all-in-one solution for HIPAA compliance, there are few better choices. Today, electronic data can be compromised in any number of ways, but when you use ioSafe’s SoloPRO hard drives, you are actively preparing for the unknown and working to ensure the safety and security of your patient’s confidential information.

 

In the quick-paced business world, data is the key to a company’s survival. That data most flow and be protected at all costs from almost every imaginable problem. If the data concerning a customer, a product or an operation is misplaced, destroyed or scrambled; then your company could be in peril. The key to protecting your data is twofold. You must back it up on a regular basis and it must be kept in multiple and safe locations.

There are ways to achieve this protection using on-site physical protection, computer networking and internet-based protection and backup. While this project may sound daunting, it is very easy for a small business to set-up their own grid of protected storage. We’re going to show you a simple 3-step program that can be used as a frame and tweaked to fit your own small business. First, you need to be aware of two different types of storage. Network-attached storage (NAS) and cloud computing. These terms will be explained in steps one and three of the plan.

Step 1: NAS and the solutions it offers. A NAS network should be the core of your new program. Network-attached storage is a file-level computer data storage unit connected to a computer network. This server is connected to all the computers in your company or office and shares the files from one source. They are often specialized computers built from the ground-up for this purpose. They usually contain more than one hard drive; using logical, redundant storage containers or RAID arrays. If your business works with large amounts of data, a NAS network makes access, configuration and administration far easier. It can create such simpler and cost-effective systems as load-balancing and fault-tolerant e-mail and web servers. It’s a good choice because it takes the work and stress off individual computers and servers.  We list some great NAS products and the companies that make them at the end of the article.

Step 2: Combining NAS with a great product, the ioSafe SoloPRO external hard drives. IoSafe is famed for their construction of disaster-proof hard drives and their SoloPRO line is a great choice for small businesses to combine with their NAS networks.  There are 23 different products in the SoloPRO line and here are some that would be a great fit for your business. The 1TB SoloPRO USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive is an excellent choice because it comes with a three year data recovery service with up $2500 of forensic data recovery and replacement. It is Linux, Mac and PC compatible and its fireproof skin protects data from loss in temperatures of up to 1550 Fahrenheit for up to ½ hour. For your purpose, the most important feature is the USB 3.0 and/or the e-STATA/USB 2.0 connectivity which allows the SoloPRO to connect to any NAS network. This connectivity feature is shared by the 2TB model, the 300GB SoloPRO SSD, the 1TB SoloPRO Desktop Hard Drive and the 3TB USB 3.0 Waterproof/Fireproof Hard Drive. The ioSafe drives can combine onsite protection with your NAS network, providing new levels of security for your data.

Step 3: Cloud protection. This type of storage uses the internet as a utility where your company sends its data to an internet storage grid. It is called a “Private Cloud” when a company engages a third-party to host an infrastructure where the data is copied, stored and updated on a regular basis. Your company can have this service for a monthly or yearly fee. Updates and copying schedules depend on the individual plan and what internet company you use. There are definite advantages in the areas of scalability, security, performance and multi-tenancy. This article provides a great list for companies interested in securing cloud coverage, “Top Cloud Computing Companies to Watch and invest in 2011”.

HDDFiresafe.com is always interested in connecting you with great products. These three companies make quality NAS devices that could fit your small business’s profile.

Synology: This Company specializes in NAS equipment for a variety of clients. In their small business & workgroups section they have many products available. Such as the RackStation RS411, the RackStation RS409 and their DiskStation line has the following; DS411, DS410, DS211 and the DS111.

LaCie: This French company has several lines of NAS products available. Such as the LaCie Network Space 2, the LaCie Network Space MAX, the LaCie 5big Backup Server, the LaCie 12big Rack Network and the LaCie CloudBox (which works perfectly with cloud coverage).

Pegasus Promise: They have several NAS products available The SmartStor NSx700 series is ideal for high-performance environments. The Enterprise Storage line is ideal for corporate structures and the SMB Storage line provides medium and small businesses with cost-effective ways to keep their data online longer. Pegasus is also involved with cloud storage solutions.

This basic plan covers all the bases. NAS allows your data to flow and perform better; the ioSafe products offer onsite protection and high-quality performance and investing in private cloud protection will allow you the peace of mind of knowing your data is decentralized and off-site. The final layout of your plan is up to you but HDDfiresafe.com will be here to help you put the pieces to together.

Written by:

Joseph Fowler

HDDFiresafe.com

Mac users looking for a new external hard drive have considerably less choice when compared to their PC counterparts. Even if they do find one that is preformatted for Apple’s computers, the chances are high that it lacks the elegance required to compete for desk space with your svelte looking Mac.

Apple doesn’t make an external hard drive, but if they did, it would almost certainly look a lot like the FireWire 800 Rugged Portable mac hard drive from ioSafe. One look at its smooth, brushed aluminum case and sleek contemporary styling, and you will soon see why Mac fans are lining up around the block to get their hands on this innovative new storage device.

With the ioSafe Rugged Portable handling all your backup needs, you will no longer need to hide your external drive from discerning friends and colleagues. Instead, you can proudly display it alongside your Mac, safe in the knowledge that it will always complement the modern design of your Apple computer.

However, the Rugged Portable is more than just a good looking hard drive. It was engineered to withstand some of the most extreme situations in order to keep your data safe and secure. How tough is it? Gadget testers from around the world have put its durability to the test by submerging it in water, encasing it in blocks of ice, shooting it with shotguns, and crushing it in a vise. After each and every test, the ioSafe Rugged Portable survived, and could still be used to retrieve the data on the hard drive.

Protection like this is virtually unheard of with any other manufacturer. There is simply no better choice than this if you are concerned about the possible loss of important company data, especially when you consider the one-year, no questions asked, ioSafe data recovery service that is included with this device.

The FireWire 800 Rugged Portable is the most affordable insurance policy that you can buy for your data. It comes preformatted for Macs, and integrates seamlessly with Apple’s Time Machine backup utility. It has a Kensington lock slot for theft protection and is made from billet-machined aluminum. In short, it’s a complete package that is built without compromise – just like your Mac.

So, if you are in the market for a portable external hard drive that is durable, functional, and stylish, you need look no further than the FireWire Rugged Portable from ioSafe. Mac aficionados everywhere are already lauding it as the number one accessory for all their data needs, so call us today to place your order.

Compare Brands and Review Your Choices

NAS systems are file-level computer data storage devices connected to a computer network that provides data access to heterogeneous clients. They are networked appliances that contain one or more hard drives which are often arranged into redundant storage containers or RAID arrays.

NAS systems are becoming more popular as a convenient method of sharing files among multiple computers. Compared to file servers, they have faster data access and easier administration. NAS networks typically provide access to files using network file sharing protocols such as NFS, SMB/CIFS and AFP.

There are many companies that manufacture NAS systems and consumers have a wide field to choose from, below is a comprehensive list of brands to compare for your online shopping needs.

HP: Founded in 1939, the Hewlett-Packard is one of the world leaders in information technology. They are recognized as the symbolic founders of Silicon Valley and one of their earliest customers was the Disney Corporation. Today they have revenue of $126.033 billion. They produce such NAS devices as the HP X500 Data Vault; which can provide automated back-ups for up to 10 PC clients. With options it can expand from 7 TB to 15 TB of memory. The HP X1000 G2 Network Storage Systems; which are a great way to add Windows-powered unified shared storage to a small or medium IT environment. Storage-specific tools and features are available such as Windows Active Directory and DFS Replication.

NetApp: This Californian Company specializes in propriety computer storage and data management. They are a member of the NASDAQ-100 and Fortune Magazine voted them the fifth best place to work. Their line of NetApp Fliers is their flagship products and they also make NAS protocols, Network File System.  NetApp can help you cut costs up to 40% with consolidation, higher utilization and reduced downtime. This protocol can also help you reduce your administrative overhead by up to 60% while delivering scalable and reliable file storage.

Dell: This famed multinational information technology corporation is based out of Texas and they employ over 103,300 worldwide. They are listed at 41 on the Forbes 500 list. They had notable acquisitions in 2006 (Alienware) and in 2009 (Perot Systems). They are also well-known for their early 2000s “Dude, you’re getting’ a Dell!” commercials. Dell also manufactures a number of network-attached storage devices. Like the PowerVault NX3100; this is a capacity-dense, dedicated network device. It supports up to 24TB in a compact 2U chassis and has twelve data drives. Dell also produces the NX4; which can save time and lower costs in mixed Windows and Linux/UNIX environments. It has optional 10Gb connectivity for NAS and Internet SCSI.

Cisco Systems: This San Francisco Company had revenue of $40.0 billion in 2010. Cisco designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice and communication technology/services. They have more than 70,000 employees and were founded in 1984. They manufacture NAS products like the Cisco NSS300 Series. Their class-leading performances reduce backup time and allow multiple users to use the device simultaneously. It safeguards information and reduces downtime with RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10. It has 5 USB 2.0 and 2 eSATA expansion ports. It comes in three different models, the NSS322, the NSS324 and the NSS326.

Netgear: Since 1996 this company has manufactured computer networking equipment and other computer hardware. They sale their products primarily through a sales channel network and in 2004 they won a Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum for the Netgear Platinum II Exposure. One of their upcoming products is the RNDP6310; it has up to 12TB of storage, data protection with RAID management and online volume expansion.  It is iSCSI compatible for Microsoft Exchange and database servers. The RNDP6620 works with Windows, Mac and Linux clients across any network. It has Dual Ethernet failover design for high availability and has Setup Wizard for easy browser-based interface.

Sun Microsystems: Sun products include computer servers and workstation based on its own SPARC processors and whole host of software products like the Solaris operating system, web infrastructure software and identity management applications. In 2010 they completed a $7.4 billion merger with the Oracle Corporation to form Oracle America, Inc. This union makes such products as the Sun ZFS Storage 7120; which has such features as Enterprise data services and 96GB of Flash-based write-cache for optimal performance. It has DTrace storage analytics and up to 120 TB of raw capacity. The Sun ZFS Storage 7420 consolidates virtual environments and has an industry leading performance. It scales up to 1.15 PB raw capacities and has Flash hybrid storage pools to improve response times.

3PAR: This Company is a manufacturer of systems and software for data storage and information management. Founded in 1999, it has 657 employees and has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as the fourth fastest growing company on its Tech25 list. In 2010 it was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $2.35 billion.  The HP P10000 3PAR Storage System is designed to deliver enterprise IT simply and efficiently. It has a new version of HP 3PAR InFormOS and up to 50% increased performance over the HP 3PAR T-Class. It has adaptive optimization software and secure multi-tenancy.

Aberdeen: Founded in 1991, Aberdeen is a leader in the field of servers and storage. They recently expanded into the Israeli market. This company produces NAS products like the AberNAS 160 LX-Series; this system can be deployed from the smallest business to the largest IT environment. It utilizes four RAID optimized SATA 3Gb/s drives and the SAS expansion port which allows for connection to many different Aberdeen XDAS units.  The AberNAS N80L Series features a 3^rd generation Linux OS and has a system memory that can support increases from 4GB to 1TB. It also can handle up to 48 RAID optimized hard drives. Two external SAS ports allow for expansion with one of Aberdeen’s new 3U 28-Bay or 4U 45-Bay JBOD enclosures.

Avere Systems: This Company is dedicated to accelerating NAS performances. It was founded in 2008 and has found success in demand-driven storage solutions. The FTX Series hardware platforms provide high-performance storage media. They contain DRAM and NVRAM to accelerate the performance of their active data. Write performance is protected by 1GB of NVRAM per application and is available in FXT 2750, FXT 2550 and FXT 2300 models. Their A-3 Architecture is one of the futures of NAS evolution. It works on a tiered filed system and has scaled-out clustering with GNS functionality. It provides unmatched visibility into your NAS environment.

Fujitsu: With the slogan, “Shaping tomorrow with you” this multinational information technology company is the third largest IT services provider in the world. Its 2010 revenue was $50.482 billion and they focus on IT-driven business solutions. Their Fujitsu CELVIN NAS Servers are tremendous products. The Q700 satisfies the need for data management for any state-of-the-art business network; it has three years of parts supply guarantee and multiple options for file management, remote access and database usage. It also has iSCSI target and initiator for simple and platform independent IP-capacity provision. The Q600 has excellent download features for BitTorrent, iTunes and Twonky media servers. It also has encrypted remote replication and powerful PC-client backup software with multiple backup modes: instant/schedule/auto-sync.

Hitachi:  As of 2009, this Japanese company was, by revenue, the third largest technological company in the world. They produce a wide variety of devices from nuclear plants to ATMs. Hitachi also produces NAS storage devices like the Hitachi NAS Platform. This product has high performance of up to 1.6GB/sec and 200,000 IOPS per node. It is highly scalable with up to 16PB of capacity. It features intelligent file tiers that enable policy-based hierarchical storage management and it has rolling upgrades and faster failover times that reduce planned and unplanned downtime. The NAS Platform 3080 has massive computing parallelism and hardware accelerated network storage that supports up to 1,100 MB/sec throughout sequential workloads and up to 73,000 IOPS per node. It has a 256TB file system and its CNS enables can cluster up to four nodes in a single namespace.

Iomega: This American company has been producing consumer external, portable and networking storage hardware since 1980. In 2008 it was acquired by the EMC Corporation and Iomega became the SOHO/SMB arm of the world’s largest storage company. Their Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 offers content sharing with advanced media features. It has RAID support with automatic RAID rebuild and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.  The network protocols CIFS/SMB/Rally, NFS, AFP/Bonjour, FTP, HTTP, HTTPS and SNMP are supported. The Iomega StorCenter ix2-300r is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses.  It’s four-drive disk packs can be expanded into right or twelve disk configurations and it can access files from any networked Windows, Mac or Linux workstation/server for easy file sharing, data backup and print serving.

LaCie: Originally two companies, LaCie in Oregon and electronique d2 in France, they focus on external hard drives, RAID arrays, optical drives, flash drive and computer monitors. They have 450 employees and a 2010 revenue of 351.8 million Euros. They are pioneers in computer aesthetics. The LaCie d2 Network 2 offers professional, reliable and central storage for any PC or Mac. Thanks to its 19” rackmount capability, it is perfect for any professional IT server. With the UPnP-IGD/NAT-PMP compatible routers you can access it remotely. The LaCie Network Space 2 is ideal because it is easy to set up and easy to use. It has Gigabit Ethernet and two-year limited warranty. It is UPnP-IGD/DLNA certified and its USB moves at 30MB/sec.

Seagate:  While originating in Ireland in 1979, Seagate Technology calls California home. It recently released a stand-alone 3TB hard drive and has been releasing hard drives since 1980 Their line of NAS devices is called BlackArmor. The BlackArmor NAS 110 has easy desktop USB storage; it can provide centralized storage and full automatic backup to up to 10 PCs. SafetyDrill bare metal recovery provides protection for your essential data and it has 1 Gigabit Ethernet port and 2 USB ports. The BlackArmor NAS 440 can provide optimum uptime and data integrity for up to 50 workstations. It has four hot-swappable drives configurable in RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10 or JBOD. It is VMware ready and has government-grade hardware encryption technology.

Targa Systems: This Canadian company is a world leader in providing military, aerospace, avionics and ground vehicle data storage solutions. Some of their clients include; Lockheed-Martin, Eurocopter, Northrop-Grumman, The Boeing Company, the U.S. Navy, Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace and NASA. Their NAS storage line includes several lines. One is the Targa Series 4 Data Transfer Unit; it has Gigabit Ethernet and provides a compact self-contained system to store and receive data from a Serial ATA (SATA) flash disk in the most demanding environments. It is configurable for simultaneous NAS and iSCSI operations and comes in three components; the single DTD, the ground station unit and the dual DTD. There is also the Targa PC Card Data Transfer Unit; this system is built to store and retrieve data from industry standard PCMCIA/ATA cards and have been qualified to meet the most demanding MIL-STD-810 and RTCA DO-160 environments. It’s PC cards have up to 32GB ATA capacities and power fail detect with DOS FAT & directory auto-save to prevent file corruption.

Western Digital: One of the largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers in the world, it began in 1970 as an integrated circuit and storage products company. By 1975 they were the largest calculator chip manufacturer and by the 2000s they were the first mainstream company to offer ATA hard disk drive with 8MB of cache buffer. Western Digital’s My Book Live has centralized storage and wireless backup. It also has a 800 MHz CPU for maximum performance and between a 1TB and 3TB capacity. The WD VelociRaptor Enterprise Hard Drive has the fastest SATA hard drive on the planet with 10,000 RPM, 32 MB cache and a SATA 6 Gb/s interface. It has 600 GB worth of capacity and great reliability with 1.4 million hours of MTBF and a five year limited warranty.

Permabit: This American company designs, builds and sells OEM-embedded data optimization software solutions and NAS appliances targeted at enterprise archiving applications. With their Albireo High Performance Data Optimization Software, Permabit has created a powerful sub-file level deduplication solution that can be flexibly integrate a parallel, inline or post-process solution. This NAS software has block, file and unified storage integration and has an ingest performance of 140+MB/sec/core (3.0 GHz Intel Xeon) linear performance scale-out as additional CPUs are added. Their Permabit Cloud Storage solution is massively scalable storage to power cloud storage. It has self-healing data protection and storage grid architecture. It also has replication flexibility no more backups; the data is protected by advanced erasure coding algorithms designed for large capacity drives.

BlueArc Corporation: Founded in the United Kingdom in 1998 and acquired by the Hitachi Corporation in 2011 for a reported $600 million. BlueArc’s product line is differentiated by its FPGA technology. It produces a variety of NAS devices like their Titan Series Servers. Their Titan models are the next generation of intelligent platforms designed to meet the needs of today’s data servers. Their IOPS are between 100,000 and 200,000 and between 10Gbps and 20Gbps. It comes in two models, the 3100 and 3200. The Mercury Mid-Range Network Storage System has open architecture that excels across a wide variety of application environments. It enables high performance and scalability through a hardware accelerated file system. Organizations that use Mercury can replace a number of their dedicated legacy systems. It’s just that efficient.

IBM: This legendary company holds more patents than any other U.S. technology company. Their employees have won five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National Medals of Technology and five National Medals of Science. It ranks as one of the largest firms in the world. Their IBM NAS N7000 Series has many different excellent models. The IBM SONAS has a 14 PB capacity and can store up to a billion files in a single file system and can have up to 256 file systems. It has backend tape support for long-term saving and a robust, automated tiered storage and lifecycle management. The IBM RTCA Appliance STN6500 has 16 x1GbE ports and can compress data in real time up to 80% while maintaining or improving performance.  It also has two physical ports for each NAS port and its link speed is 1 GbE.

Overland Storage: This Company recently acquired the SnapServer line of NAS devices; Overland was founded in 1980 and originally manufactured IBM-compatible 9 track-tape drives. Their SnapServer line is powered by Overland’s award winning GuardianOS. The SnapServer N2000 has a high performance scalable platform for storing both file and block data. It has a Java-based utility integrated with the GuardianOS and the ability to scale from 1.2TB to more than 140TB. The SnapServer 410 has up to 8TB of storage needs and SATA drives with fixed capacities ranging from 2TB to 8TB and supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10. Its out-of-the-box support for multi-platform environments keeps all your security and access permissions intact.

Buffalo Technology: This subsidiary of Melco Holdings Inc was founded in 1975 and entered the computer peripheral market in 1981. They produce a large number of NAS devices including; the Linkstation Pro LS-VL which is available in 1TB, 2TB and 3TB. It is significantly faster than a USB drive and includes NovaBACKUP professional software for Windows and Time Machine support. It has DDR3 RAM and transfer speeds up to 76MB/s. The TeraStation ES TS-XEL/R5 is available in 2TB, 4TB and 8TB capacities and cost-effective RAID based storage and active directory integration. It also has front-loading hot-swap hard drive in the front panel for easy access and 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet with jumbo frame support.

Proware Technology: A Taiwanese company that was founded in 1992 and is known for its RAID storage array hardware and software. Proware is also known for its hardware storage arrays and NAS solutions. The flagship product line is the Epica series which was launched in 2006.  Their NAS products are equally impressive; such as the proNAS Series DN-500 SATA NAS. It supports up to five hot-swappable SATA II hard drives and has a Linux-based OS design. It is also configured by Flex/Ruby browser based software. The EPICa Series EN-T800 SAS NAS offers RAID levels of 0, 1, 5, and 10 along with Linear (JBOD).  System reliability is assured by an environmental monitoring unit which tracks the enclosure temperature and individual hard disk temperature which is good because it supports up to eight hot-swappable SAS/SATA II hard drives.

ioSafe: This company is unique for the fact that they produce lines of disaster-proof devices. It was founded in 2004 and their first product was the ioSafe S1, the first external hard drive with fire and flood protection.  In July 2008 they introduced the first disaster-protected internal hard drive, the ioSafe R4 and in January 2010, they premiered the first disaster-protected external solid state drive, the ioSafe Solo SSD. IoSafe used to make a NAS backup appliance. This device is engineered to resist fire, flood, primary server or hard drive failure. Its airflow cooling ability ensured enterprise class reliability and it had a three year product warranty. With its constant technical support and optional EMC Retrospect data backup software, there was no better way to defend your data.

Synology: This Taiwanese company manufactures NAS devices for the SOHO and SMB/SME. Since 2000 their products have been distributed all over the world. They have three main product lines, for the home, for the home/small office and for the medium to large business. Synology is known for embracing the power-user/programmer community. Their DiskStation DS2411+ can scale up to 24 drives at the same time. It has average 165 MB/sec writing and 195 MB/sec reading. It can scale up to 72TB with the Synology DX1211 and 2 LAN with failover and link aggregation support. The DS411slim is green, compact and quiet. Perfect for a home or small office with its small footprint and cross platform file sharing and backup. It is designed for 2.5” hard drives and it has flexible RAID management.

A business will want to get every ounce of energy and productivity out of their NAS devices. The field is large enough so that individuals and businesses can tailor their NAS to them and not the other way around. So study, research and shop around; remember it’s your choice and your responsibility.

For more information on hard drive brands, you can read our list of comparing hard drives.

ASTM International is one of those organizations that have had a huge effect on consumer’s lives and those consumers may not even be aware of its existence.

Formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials and now called ASTM International, this organization is a globally recognized leader in the development and delivery of international consensus standards. Today over 12,000 ASTM standards are used all over the globe to improve product quality, enhance safety, facilitate market access and trade and build consumer confidence. ASTM has been in operation since 1898 and its members include over 30,000 technical experts from 135 different countries.

What is an international standard? It is a document that has been developed and established within the consensus principles of the organization and meets the requirements of ASTM procedures and regulations. Full consensus standards are developed with the participation of all parties that have a stake in the standards’ development and/or use. ASTM has no role in requiring compliance or enforcement of their standards but they may become mandatory when referenced by an external contact, corporation or government.

Where and how do people use ASTM standards? These standards are used by people, companies, agencies, purchasers and sellers, who incorporate them into contracts; scientists and engineers use them in their laboratories and offices; architects and designers use them in their blueprints; government entities use them as reference material for laws and many others refer to them for guidance on various issues and products.

ASTM divides their standards into six categories.

1.  The Standard Specification, which defines the requirements to be satisfied by subject of the standard.

2. The Standard Test Method, which defines the way a test is performed and the precision of the result.  The result of the test may be used to assess compliance with a Standard Specification.

3. The Standard Practice, which defines a sequence of operations that, unlike a Standard Test Method, does not produce a result.

4. The Standard Guide that which provides an organized collection of information or series of options that does not recommend a specific course of action.

5. The Standard Classification, that provide an arrangement or division of materials, products, systems or services into groups based on similar characteristics such as origin, composition, properties and use.

6.  The Terminology Standard, that provides agreed definitions of terms used in other standards.

IoSafe products such as the Solo and the SoloPRO are tested and proved per the ASTM rating E119 which covers test methods for fire tests or building construction and materials. IoSafe tested these products for heat and flame up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit and for periods up to 30 minutes. An ASTM rating means that the methods ioSafe used to test their products work and they can prove their conclusions and claims.

If a company wants to put an ASTM rating on their products, they need to build their tests, products and organization to ASTM standards. They are one of the most commonly used independent rating companies but they are by no means the only one.

ETL SEMKO (formerly Edison Testing Laboratory) is a division of Intertek Group plc and they specialize in electrical product safety testing, EMC testing and benchmark performance testing. They have more than 30 offices and laboratories on six continents.

CE Mark, this rating is a mandatory conformity mark for products placed on the market in the European Economic Area.  It is necessary for certain product groups in the European Union and countries where EU products are sold. Seeing the mark on a product means it has been tested and it meets EU safety, health and environmental protection requirements.

Underwriters Laboratories is an organization established in 1894 and deals chiefly in product safety. They also develop standards and test procedures for materials, components, assemblies, tools and equipment. They also analyze drinking water and clean water samples through their laboratory in South Bend, Indiana. They are recognized by OSHA for safety standards.

NSF International is a Michigan-based not-for-profit public health and environmental organization that provides standards development and product certification. They were founded in 1944 and they work primarily in public health and safety. They have over 1200 employees in 150 countries and work with the World Health Organization.

The Canadian Standards Association is a not-for-profit crown corporation founded in 1919 with the stated aim developing standards for over 57 areas of specialization such as climate change, business management, industrial equipment, construction materials, boilers and pressure vessels and electronic/electrical equipment. Their employees are composed of representatives from government, industry and consumer groups.

SGS S.A. is an international organization that provides inspection, verification, testing and certification services for traded goods. They are divided into ten divisions; agriculture, automotive, consumer testing services, environmental services, governments and institutions, industrial, life science, minerals, oil/gas/chemicals and system/services certification. They were founded in 1878 and have spread from France to 1250 offices and laboratories across the world.

Seeing an ASTM rating on a product like having insider knowledge that it’s well-tested, well-made and can suit your purposes. Researching products for this rating is worth any consumer’s time and energy.