Startup shows super-rugged SSD backup
Fire and flood does not wither it.
By John Dunn | Techworld | Published: 15:47, 05 January 2010
Storage startup ioSafe has shown off its idea of indestructible storage, the Solo SSD, which it claims can survive almost any shock, drop, flood or even fire hazard business disaster can throw at it.
Described as being the drive equivalent of an aircraft black box, the Solo SSD external drive features several later of protection, starting with its ‘ArmorPlate' steel outer shell, which can help it survive a two-storey building collapse, including crush forces and a 20 foot drop into rubble.
The drive is also sealed to help it survive fire for up to half an hour at temperatures of up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit (843 degrees centigrade), and is said to be able to survive full submersion in salt water for up 30 days.
Related Articles on Techworld
The design eschews the normal moving hard drives of conventional storage boxes, employing SSD (solid state drives) in capacities of 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB to increase ruggedness and, assuming the operating system fully supports the SSD technology, greater performance. Standard interfaces include USB 2.0 and the somewhat speedier eSATA.
The company already uses the same technology in disaster recovery designs using conventional hard drive.
The ioSafe Solo SSD can be used alone or in conjunction with any offsite or online backup strategy to add real time, zero data loss, synchronous disaster protection to any data that sits vulnerable," said ioSafe CEO, Robb Moore, who underlined its usefulness for any enterprise looking to comply with the disaster recovery requirements specified by HIPAA, PCI or Sarbanes Oxley.
None of this comes cheap, but then again anyone worrying about data security to this level will probably see it as a price worth paying. The drives cost $499 (64GB), $749 (128GB) and $1,250 (256GB), and comes with drivers for Windows, Mac and Linux. UK pricing has yet to be announced.
