Most PI companies are small affairs, usually four or five people, but in my experience, they create a lot of data. Video, pictures, reports, supporting material for reports, scanned documents, and it must all reside on a computer somewhere.
Microsoft Windows Home Server software, which sells for about $100, is a a very simple (in form and function anyway) operating system that has built in backup and file sharing capabilities to make life easy without adding the complexity of managing a true server.
In May, Acer began selling its Aspire easyStore Home Server. The street price seems to be less than $500 CD which usually includes a second 1TB drive and Windows Home Server software.
UPDATE:
It seems that it had a tendency to lose data under some conditions, a problem that’s only been fixed recently: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=473
One does need to make sure that the software is patched up to the latest and greatest version when taking a chance on Windows Home Server. It seems that it had a tendency to lose data under some conditions, a problem that’s only been fixed recently: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=473
Personally, I’d be more inclined to rely on a Linux-based NAS (network-attached storage), such as a Western Digital My Book World Edition or one of the devices from QNAP. The Drobo is also nice, but requires the Drobo share option to be purchased as well.
Thanks Tom.
Tom really knows what he is talking about.
I have only seen & used the PP1 version which seemed to work very well in my tests.
The Western Digital My Book World Edition can be found at http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/216732/Western_Digital_WD_Retail/WDH1NC10000N/ for about $190 CD.