Business cloud storage is experiencing explosive growth, and chipmaker Intel is ready to carve out a piece of the market for itself with new Atom-powered solutions.
Aimed at small business users as well as consumers, Intel is providing network-attached storage solutions starting at $299 (UK£185, AU$293), powered by the company's Atom D2550 or D2500 processors.
With OEM partners Asustor, QNAP, and Thecus already shipping NAS systems powered by Intel's architecture, the chip provider's plans are to keep up with the rapidly expanding cloud storage needs of regular users.
Cloud storage on the rise
"Ballooning data is a fact of life," Intel Storage Group General Manager David Tuhy remarked while introducing the company's new cloud storage platform at a media briefing Thursday.
Intel, citing figures from the Aberdeen Group, a research firm, said small business cloud storage needs are increasing by 30 percent each year.
Consumer cloud use is expected to grow from 329 exabytes to a whopping 4.1 zettabytes, a figure that blows gigabytes out of the water.
Tuhy cited protection and privacy as the biggest concern of the consumer and SMB customers they're targeting with the new products.
Intel's solution uses an login-secured, exposed HTML IP address which can be accessed from a web browser or appear as a mounted volume on a desktop computer.
In addition to sharing devices on a local area network, Intel's NAS products include RAID data protection, integrated support for digital displays, hardware acceleration, multiple OS support with up to 4GB of memory and USB 3.0 connectivity.
Via CNET
