Maxtor Introduces Consumer NAS-Type Device
By Doug Olenick -- TWICE, 1/24/2005
LAS VEGAS — In order to take advantage of the growing popularity of home networking and its accompanying need for network storage, Maxtor introduced its Maxtor Shared Storage Solution at CES.
Quoting data from In-Stat, Scottsdale, Ariz., Maxtor expects 97 million consumers worldwide to have a home network by 2008. The new product is a first for Maxtor and differs from the company's traditional external storage products like the OneTouch II external hard drive in that the new devices behave like an enterprise level Network Attached Storage device that allow all the PCs on the network to access the stored data. The OneTouch is used specifically with just one PC.
The drive connects into the home network's router via the Ethernet port and the user runs Maxtor's QuickStart software on each of the attached PCs to automatically configure the network. A desktop icon then appears on each computer station giving direct access to the Shared Storage Solution drive. Public and password-protected private folders can be created on the Shared Storage drive. Each unit has two USB ports for attaching peripherals or adding additional external storage capacity.
Maxtor will make a 200GB and 300GB version available starting in February in the U.S. market with worldwide distribution starting the following month. Suggested retail prices are, respectively, $299 and $399.
