Over the past two years, network attached storage (NAS) has evolved from a convenient but oddball way to store data to a new kind of file server with some very attractive features. The newest member of the Maxtor NAS product line, the Maxtor MaxAttach NAS 4300, is aimed at the medium-to-large data center market, and it includes useful new data protection and recovery capabilities.

The NAS 4300, a 1U rack-mounted device with 400GB of capacity, carries a reasonable $5,999 price tag (direct from Maxtor online). The unit comes as a turnkey appliance with the ability to use the AppleTalk, IP, and IPX protocols to store data for Apple, Microsoft Windows, NetWare, and Unix clients. Give it power and an Ethernet connection and it's ready.

The system is built for high reliability and performance, and Maxtor provides a three-year warranty. The four Ultra ATA/100 drives can hold as much as 400GB of data in software RAID Level 0, 1, or 5 configurations, but the actual maximum storage available varies with the storage protocols and other data-recovery features you choose.

The NAS 4300 moves data into the network using two 10/100 Ethernet cards operating in parallel with load-balancing and fail-over capability or through an internal copper Gigabit Ethernet port.

Maxtor bundles Persistent Storage Manager (PSM) software with the NAS 4300; this puts Maxtor head to head with IBM in the dynamic storage business. PSM uses Persistent True Image, a technique that creates a dynamic snapshot of the data in storage so that you can roll back to a point before a data disaster or event. PSM automatically archives changed data on a scheduled or on-demand basis, so it creates backups without the need to take the system off-line.

The image can also be used for data analysis and tests of new software revisions before they go live. PSM occupies about 53GB of the available storage in its default mode, but you can assign it more or turn it off completely, depending on the size of your data set and the importance of this service to your operation.

This relatively small box requires almost no setup, stores huge amounts of data, keeps the information safe, and delivers it to many different kinds of clients at high speed. The NAS 4300 is a good bet for growing enterprises.