Iomega Personal Cloud Promises Easy Online Access To Data Backup

Iomega has launched its new Personal Cloud Technology system, complete with online access and of content stored on the company's network-connected 2011 external drive range. It's kicking off with the Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition, a pair of drives – one 1TB, one 2TB – which support gigabit ethernet and the contents of which can be quickly shared via the online interface.

The new cloud-edition drives get iTunes server and UPnP DLNA support, along with automatic posting of photos and video to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. It's also possible to do device-to-device copying, either locally or remotely, and there are two USB 2.0 ports for adding external drives. If you have a Mozy or Amazon S3 cloud storage account, you can link those in too.

Iomega's Boxee-based Iomega TV also uses the same system, and can also link in with the Personal Cloud Technology setup. The Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition drives will arrive later in January 2011, priced at $169.99 for the 1TB and $229.99 for the 2TB.

Press Release:

Iomega Announces Exciting New Personal Cloud Technology And New Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition

Iomega Personal Cloud turns your Iomega NAS into a Cloud Server that:

Enables you to backup remotely to your own Personal Cloud

Host your own Cloud to share with friends, family or for business

Free remote access

All this and more with every Iomega NAS Drive in 2011

SAN DIEGO, January 4, 2011 – — Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the new Iomega® Personal Cloud technology, the ultimate data protection and remote access solution for small businesses and consumers that gives you the control of your own Personal Cloud without complexities and extra costs.

Iomega's Personal Cloud is a revolutionary web-based computing architecture that connects your Iomega network storage device to other individuals and/or devices via the Internet. Unlike most public and private cloud applications, Iomega's Personal Cloud technology is completely self-owned – the content and accessibility is always under your control. Best of all, there are never any usage fees or subscription charges; instead, Iomega gives small businesses and consumers a great value for cloud access and protection.

"Iomega's new Personal Cloud is an innovative technology that separates our network storage products from the competition," said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega. "Utilizing the expertise of EMC, the world's leader in cloud technology, we have transformed our next generation NAS devices into cloud servers that users can access anywhere, anytime. In addition, by buying two or more of our NAS products, you can remotely backup your onsite data to an alternate location – be it your office, home or some other location – giving consumers and small businesses the ideal disaster recovery plan that's easy to implement and economical, too. You're not going to find this level of innovation or value from any of our competitors."

Iomega Personal Cloud will be available worldwide beginning this month with the launch of the new single-drive Iomega® Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition.

Iomega Personal Cloud is also a built-in feature in the new Iomega TV with Boxee, launching in February.

"There are tremendous opportunities in 2011 for NAS device OEMs to refine easy-to-use basic features as well as integrate innovative technologies", said Benjamin S. Woo, Program Vice President, WW Storage Systems, IDC. "Iomega's new Personal Cloud technology brings news and innovation to the consumer and small business NAS markets that will differentiate from competing NAS devices. The Personal Cloud functionality will accelerate the adoption and growth of the consumer and small business NAS markets."

Iomega is unveiling its new Personal Cloud technology for the first time this week, January 6-9, 2011, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Iomega's tradeshow booth is located in the South Hall 3 (booth # 31553).

How the Iomega Personal Cloud Works

Users of Iomega's new NAS devices can create their own Personal Cloud in just minutes. The onscreen Personal Cloud setup page asks you to name your Personal Cloud and then confirms creation of your Personal Cloud. You can invite up to 250 members (devices) into your Personal Cloud, giving your business contacts, co-workers or personal friends and family around the globe the ability – determined by you – to copy and share files directly between computers as though they were all together on a local network.

Benefits and Features of the using the Iomega Personal Cloud

Simple. No IT expertise is needed to set up and manage your Personal Cloud. Set up in minutes! When you invite others into your Personal Cloud, they receive an email with a link and an authorization code that automatically installs the Iomega Storage Manager which creates a shared drive letter on their desktop. Simply click on the drive letter for access to the Personal Cloud.

Affordable. For zero additional investment outside purchasing an Iomega StorCenter network storage device, Iomega's Personal Cloud is the most economical way for a small- to medium-sized business to protect and share their data, and for consumers to share their digital life with family and friends.

Synchronization. Users around the globe can sync files directly between computers as though they were on a local network. Many SMBs still keep key files on local hard drives; Iomega's Personal Cloud means no more sneaker-net or emailing files around the office.

Collaboration. Business users can view and edit documents (such as spreadsheets, presentations and word processing documents), which helps geographically dispersed workers collaborate in real time. Consumers can immediately share their family photos, videos and other digital files.

Secure transfer of large or confidential files. Large video, audio, and graphic art files can quickly choke a small company's e-mail system. E-mailing sensitive files can raise security concerns. Iomega Personal Cloud offers drag-and-drop functionality that makes it easy to securely transfer large or confidential files.

Security and a Disaster Recovery Plan. At smaller companies, locally stored files are at risk from theft, fire, software problems, and hardware failure. The Iomega Personal Cloud offers built in redundancy at every level: hard drive, server, and datacenter. Should disaster strike, with two Iomega StorCenter devices and the Personal Cloud backing up your company storage offsite, you have a disaster recovery plan that allows easy copying of files so that you are up and running in no time.

Secure Access. Data is accessible only on the Personal Cloud by those who have the appropriate permissions to access it. Safeguards, such as AES 128-bit encryption, can be enabled to protect your data while in transit on the Internet. Secure logins also protect your data stored in the personal cloud from being accessed by the unintended recipients and hackers while in transit on the Internet.

Low Maintenance. Once the system is set up there is almost no maintenance. You still have to manage user accounts, but jobs like array maintenance and monitoring the health of your data storage are no longer needed.

Archiving. Archiving older files to a remote StorCenter frees up space on your primary StorCenter device for day-to-day business needs. Less capacity required for primary storage saves you money.

New Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition

Launching worldwide this month in 1TB* and 2TB capacities, the new single-drive Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition is the latest generation of the award-winning original that makes it easy for home users and small businesses to share work files, photo slideshows, music libraries and other files with co-workers, friends and families anywhere in the world (with an Internet connection).

With improved performance, easy menus and settings, and lots of new features over the previous generation of the product, the new model is the ideal centerpiece of any home or small office network that also can benefit from having its own economical cloud. Iomega's new Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition is so simple to use that even those who have never used network storage will find it a breeze to set up and impossible to do without.

Benefits and Features of the new Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition

The new Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition utilizes the acclaimed EMC LifeLine™ software, a fully-developed Linux operating environment and suite of applications designed for seamless cross-platform support with Windows®, Mac® and Linux computers.

Among the many features of the new Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition:

Gigabit Ethernet connecting directly to your router

Remote access from anywhere in the world

Built-in iTunes® server for easy playback

UPnP™ DLNA Certified AV Media Server 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, networked TVs and digital picture frames, Iomega® ScreenPlay™ products and more.

Automatically post files to your Facebook®, YouTube® & Flickr® accounts

Device-to-device Copy Jobs for data protection allows you to define a job to copy and/or synchronize files to and from the connected USB drives or any other shared storage on your network.

One-touch copying with the QuikTransfer button on the front panel.

Low power, fan-less design, with drive spin-down feature

Public cloud connections to Mozy and Amazon S3 online storage

Two USB 2.0 ports to add storage capacity connecting external USB drives

Device-to-device replication for data protection allows you to define a job to copy and/or synchronize files to and from the connected USB drives or any other shared storage on your network. Print Serving with intelligent print sharing capability for up to two USB printers.

Time Machine support allows Apple users to easily backup any Mac computers running OS X (10.5 or later) using Time Machine.

Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) provides no touch, automatic transfer of photos from digital cameras via one of the two USB ports.

Availability and Warranty

Iomega Personal Cloud technology will be available worldwide beginning this month with the launch of the Iomega® Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition. Iomega Personal Cloud is also a built-in feature in the new Iomega TV with Boxee, launching in February.

The new Iomega® Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition will be available worldwide later this month in two capacities: a 1TB model for $169.99, and a 2TB model for $229.99. (All pricing is U.S. suggested retail.)

For more information on the new Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive Cloud Edition, please go to www.iomega-personal-cloud.com/.