Netgear released three new rackmount NAS units all based on the Intel Xeon E3-1200 V5 series of processors. The Netgear ReadyNAS 4312S and 4312X both have 10GbE onboard (S for SFP+ and X for 10Gbase-T). The two recent launches mean that Netgear has launched 10GbE in 4 of its last 5 announced NAS products, continuing a trend towards SMB 10GbE adoption in 2016. We had a chance to speak with Netgear prior to the release and we expect this trend to continue on higher-end units. Netgear is clearly targeting the lower-end of the NAS/ SAN market offering hardware that can handle the storage neets of many SMB customers at price points below a third of what NetApp and EMC (soon Dell Technologies) offer. With today’s 10TB disks a 2U 12-bay rackmount can already handle 120TB without adding storage shelves. We are likely going to see 12TB and larger drives in the next few months making these Netgear units appropriate for SMB IT departments and service providers.
Since Netgear is relying upon BTRFS for these units, we asked the company about the recent BTRFS RAID 5/6 bugs that have rendered the current mainline implementation not fit for production. Netgear said that they found the issue several years ago and have a different implementation not impacted by the standard BTRFS RAID 5/6 issues. We were told that the company has been shipping these units for years and nobody has lost data due to their BTRFS RAID implementation. We will hopefully have the opportunity to test this over the next few months.
The company also told us that the Intel Xeon E3-1225 V5 and E3-1245 V5 processors provide companies with the ability to use their NAS units for far more than just storage and they expect customers to use these servers to run business applications as well.
Here are key excerpts from the press release:
High-Performance Hardware
Both ReadyNAS 4312S and 4312X are designed for high performance business environments and can be connected to dedicated SFP+ or 10GBASE-T switches, offering growing businesses an easy, flexible migration path to high-speed NAS connectivity. The RR4312X offers backwards compatibility with 1GbE switching, providing a solid business case to migrate to higher speed 10GBASE-T storage networking at a pace to suit customers.
What’s New in the Newest Rackmount ReadyNAS?
ReadyNAS 3312 Hardware
- 2U rackmount form with 12-bay capacity for up to 120 simultaneous users
- Intel® Xeon® Server Processor E3-1225v5 Quad Core with 3.3GHz base turbo frequency (3.7GHz burst maximum)
- 8GB DDR4 of ECC RAM (expandable to 64GB)
- Capacity up to 120TB (scales to 600TB with two 4U EDA4000 expansion chassis)
- 4x 1GBase-T ports
- Link Aggregation IEEE 802.3ad, Layer 2, 3, 4
- Port Trunking, adaptive load balancing
ReadyNAS 4312S Hardware
- 2U rackmount form with 12-bay capacity for up to 160 simultaneous users
- Intel® Xeon® Server Processor E3-1245v5 Quad Core with 3.5GHz base turbo frequency (3.9GHz burst maximum)
- 16GB DDR4 of ECC RAM (expandable to 64GB)
- Capacity up to 120TB (scales to 600TB with two 4U EDA4000 expansion chassis)
- 2x 10G SFP+ ports
- 4x 1GBase-T ports
- Link Aggregation IEEE 802.3ad, Layer 2, 3, 4
- Port Trunking, adaptive load balancing
ReadyNAS 4312X Hardware
- 2U rackmount form with 12-bay capacity for up to 160 simultaneous users
- Intel® Xeon® Server Processor E3-1245v5 Quad Core with 3.5GHz base turbo frequency (3.9GHz burst maximum)
- 16GB DDR4 of EEC RAM (expandable to 64GB)
- Capacity up to 120TB (scales to 600TB with two 4U EDA4000 expansion chassis)
- 2x 10GBase-T ports
- 4x 1GBase-T ports
- Link Aggregation IEEE 802.3ad, Layer 2, 3, 4
- Port Trunking, adaptive load balancing
ReadyNAS OS Offers Data Protection and Cloud Options
The ReadyNAS OS 6 enabling a complete, reliable and cost-effective backup platform, starting with its BTRFS File System with 5 levels of data protection:
- RAID protection against disk failure
- Real time anti-virus
- Incremental backup copies with unlimited snapshots
- Bitrot protection against media degradation; and
- Easy-to-setup cloud-managed replication
ReadyNAS OS allows automatic bi-direction synchronization between any ReadyNAS model and the data storage offered by public cloud services such as Amazon Cloud Drive and Dropbox.
Upon upgrade to the latest version of ReadyNAS OS 6, the new ReadyDR™ (Disaster Recovery) will be automatically installed for block-level backup and restore to a second ReadyNAS[1]. This new feature ensures LAN replication of even the largest backup files and databases.
In addition to supporting connections to popular cloud services, the new models also offer Netgear ReadyCLOUD®, which provides an instant, secure VPN-based private cloud for local and remote data access for file sharing, without additional costs. Its versatile sync and remote management capabilities enable employees to enjoy the same unified interface regardless of location.
Pricing and Availability
The new ReadyNAS models are available now worldwide. ReadyNAS 3312 and ReadyNAS 4312X/4312S come as diskless chassis or populated with 12 storage drives (3TB, 4TB, or 6TB).
- The diskless model of ReadyNAS 3312 has an MSRP of $2,999.
- The diskless model of ReadyNAS 4312S with two SFP+ ports has an MSRP of $4,199.
- The diskless model of ReadyNAS 4312X with two 10GBase-T ports has an MSRP of $4,399.
Netgear backs its ReadyNAS business-class products with the industry best-in-class 5-Year Limited Hardware Warranty, 5-Year Next Business Day Shipping for part replacement, and multiple support options to provide peace of mind for years to come.
