Review of the Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 Network Storage Cloud Edition

We first told you about the Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 back in July. Now it’s time to review this little NAS box.

Content sharing with advanced media features and data protection in an easy-to-use product ideal for small/remote offices, workgroups and power home users.

Who are Iomega?

From their website:

Iomega Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC Corporation headquartered in San Diego, is a worldwide leader in innovative storage and network security solutions for small businesses, home offices, consumers and others. The Company has sold more than 410 million digital storage drives and disks since its inception in 1980. Today, Iomega’s product portfolio includes industry leading network attached storage products, external hard drives, multimedia drives, and our award-winning removable storage technology, the REV® Backup Drive.

Features

• RAID Support—RAID 1 (mirror) with automatic RAID rebuild. RAID 0 (Stripe) and JBOD mode also available.
• Network File Protocols Supported—CIFS/SMB/Rally (Microsoft), NFS (Linux/UNIX), AFP/Bonjour (Apple), FTP, TFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV, Windows DFS, SNMP.
• Gigabit Ethernet connectivity with Jumbo frame support and high performance embedded architecture.
• iSCSI target provides block-level access for the most efficient storage utilization, especially for backup, database and email application performance. It can be used in parallel with file-level storage access via CIFS/NFS.
• Ease of Use:
  • Simple three step setup – Simply plug into your router, power on, and install the software CD
  • User friendly web-based management interface
  • Web Interface accessible in 16 supported languages
• Simple Content Sharing:
  • Access files from any networked Windows, Apple or Linux computer for easy file sharing.
  • Easily share content with friends and family outside of your home using the exclusive Iomega® Personal Cloud feature. Invited guests will have access to read and write to files and folders on your network drive. No need to email file attachments.
  • Built-in photo slide-show sharing feature – easily select and share your digital pictures on the web.
  • File distribution made easy. Drop files into a designated distribution folder, and all of those on the distribution list automatically get an email with either the files attached, or a link to download the files.
• Remote Access:
  • Connect securely from anywhere in the world and get full access to pictures, videos, files and administration of the StorCenter ix2-200 through a personalized web address.
  • Upload and share files and folders directly from iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ and other mobile devices while on the road.*
• Active Directory Support—functions as a client member in an Active Directory domain allowing the StorCenter ix2-200 to utilize the domain users and groups.
• Replication/Device to Device Copy Jobs:
  • One touch copying via the QuikTransfer button. Easily copy files to and from attached USB drives or any network share – including Iomega Personal Cloud locations – using the rsync or CIFS protocol
  • Define your Copy Job to copy/synchronize files to and from connected drives and/or any other shared storage on your network.
  • Schedule jobs to run on a predetermined schedule.
• Expandability—Add storage capacity by connecting external USB hard disk drives. Supports read/ write on Fat32, NTFS, ext2/ext3, or HFS+ formatted drives.
• Data Organization and Access— Windows DFS organizes folders and files on a network, such that they appear to be all in one directory tree on a single Iomega StorCenter system, even if the folders reside on many devices in many different locations. WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) enables viewing, adding, or deleting files on a StorCenter from the web, via HTTP or HTTPS for added security.
• Power Savings—Automatic hard drive spin-down assures the most efficient (minimal) power consumption.
• Print Server—Intelligent print sharing capability for up to 3 USB printers connected to the StorCenter ix2-200.
• Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Support— Enables unattended system shutdown via the USB port without data loss in the case of power failure.
• System Status— Consolidated resource on space utilization, device information, and status. In addition, you can manage controls such as device restart from here.
• Reporting— Email alerts and Event Logging provide up-to-the minute updates on the status of your device even when you are away from your computer. SNMP agent monitoring helps administrators centrally manage the StorCenter ix2-200.
• Built in Audio Video Media Server– UPnP™ DLNA Certified—Provides the ability to stream photos, audio content and videos to a variety of media devices, such as game consoles (Microsoft Xbox® 360, Sony PlayStation® 3), audio bridges, iTunes™ players, picture frames, Iomega ScreenPlay products and more.
  • Create shared iTunes™ libraries to provide a central location for your music
• Social Media Sharing Made Easy— Convenient folders that automatically integrate with your social media accounts. Multiple accounts are no problem – just create another folder for each account.
  • Facebook— Files dropped into your Facebook folder are automatically uploaded to your Facebook page.
  • Flickr— Files dropped into your Flickr folder are automatically added to the designated Flickr photo albumn.
  • YouTube— Videos dropped into your YouTube folder are automatically uploaded to your YouTube channel.
• Torrent Download Manager— The Iomega ix2-200 manages peer-to-peer file transfers without the need of a dedicated PC.
• Security Camera— Built in support for up to 5 UPnP (universal plug and play) network cameras by AXIS® and Panasonic to capture and store video without the need of a dedicated PC. IP cameras from other manufacturers can recode to a Share, but are not automatically discovered. Video is encoded as MPEG-4.
  • Embedded Axis Video Hosing Solution (AVHS) for local to hosted cloud video storage and management.
• Powerful Backup Functionality:
  • Backup all the computers on your network simply by downloading and installing the available client backup software. Also compatible with today’s most common backup software applications
  • Time Machine® Support— Allows Apple® users to easily backup any Mac computers running OS X (10.5 or later) using Time Machine.
  • Personal Cloud Backup— Use one of the integrated 3rd party cloud-based storage services such as Amazon S3 or MozyConnect™ Beta to replicate data from your ix2-200 to your public cloud account.
  • Public Cloud Backup— Synchronize data between personal cloud member systems and the ix2-200.
  • Cloud Disaster Recovery— Utilize two ix2-200 devices in different locations and the Iomega Personal Cloud function to create your own disaster recovery scheme.
• Digital Photography Tools:
  • Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP)— No touch, automatic transfer of photos from digital cameras via the USB port.
  • Photo Resize— Automatically resize photos to a specified resolution.
  • Watermark— Automatically add a watermark of your choosing to photos as they are re-sized.
• Bluetooth® Upload— Upload contacts, photos, and more from a cell phone, pocket PC or BlackBerry phone (Bluetooth USB adapter required, sold separately).
• Total Data Protection:
  • Native Security Support— With robust username and password authorized access. Create additional users and secure their content with password protection.
  • User Quotas— Easily manage capacity by setting maximum limits per user
  • RSA® BSAFE® technology protects installs and upgrades.
  • Data Protection Software— Iomega’s full suite of data protection software is available for download. The suite includes; Trend Micro™ Internet Security, Iomega QuikProtect Backup software, and MozyHome™ Online Backup service.
• Software Compatibility—Compatible with today’s most common backup software, web browsers, media devices and computers