Anthology Solutions Yellow Machine Terabyte Storage Appliance
By: Sal Cangeloso
Data storage is one of the most dynamic fields in the computer industry. With file sizes growing rapidly and the increasing need to have important files ready at all times, methods must be developed to cope with this. The limitations that go along with storage on a local computer system have cleared the way for the use of more scalable solutions. This is true not only at the enterprise level, but in small office and home office (SOHO) environments as well.
This review will be taking a look at Anthology Solutions' Yellow Machine P400T Terabyte Storage Appliance. That's right, a terabyte storage appliance. This may seem like a lot for the consumer or even SOHO level user, but if the data storage industry has shown us anything, its that you cannot have too much reliable storage space. Does the average user need a terabyte or more of storage? Probably not, but once you factor in use by a business or a power user who needs data available on multiple systems at once or is doing something very storage intensive, like editing video, a solution like this one starts making a great deal of sense.
The Yellow Machine P400T Terabyte Storage Appliance is a network-attached storage (NAS) solution. It houses up to four 3.5" hard drives but is much more than just an enclosure, it has an extensive feature set which enables it to do things that would normally be done on a data server, not just a storage device. Anthology Solutions designed the Yellow Machine to be more than just a simple NAS, so it has a number of extra features which are meant to set it apart from competing products.
How is the Yellow Machine different from the average NAS? Anthology Solutions writes, "Yellow Machine Appliance does not just add disk space to your network but also controls web access and acts as your network gateway to the outside world. Nor do you need to add any special software or drivers to your PC, adding overhead and the risk of instability, as NAS devices usually require."
At is most basic level, the Yellow Machine is a device which can store terabytes of information, but in addition to simple storage, which any hard drive can do, it has more advanced capabilities. These include:
- RAID Levels 0, 1, 1+0, and 5
- 8-port LAN Switch and NAT Router
- Integrated Packet Inspection (SPI) Firewall and Proxy Server
- Secure Internet Gateway
- Auto Back-Up (of Clients)
- Web Access Control & Management
- E-mail Backup and Recording