Dell and EMC's Iomega last week introduced two different backup appliances for use in small and midsize enterprises and for consumers.

Dell introduced the PowerVault DL2000, an appliance built on its PowerVault storage platform – it includes either CommVault Simpana or Symantec Backup Exec data protection software. Dell claims that the appliance offers 55% faster backups and 77% faster restores than tape backup.

The DL2000 comes in two models and has optional archive and replication capabilities. Because it is packaged as an appliance, it is, according to Dell’s claims, easy to set up and manage. The appliance offers up to 144TB of disk space and eliminates the need for SMBs to configure RAID or LUNs to their backup software.

The DL2000 can also be combined with Dell PowerVault TL2000, TL4000, or ML6000 tape libraries. It will be available later this month.

Iomega is introducing this week the StorCenter iX2 Network Storage platform, a backup and recovery appliance for consumers and small business. Available in two sizes, 1TB and 2TB, the StorCenter contains Serial ATA II drives and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. It is bundled with EMC Retrospect Express backup and disaster recovery software.

The StorCenter also has print server capability and a built-in media server that can store video, photos and music from Windows, Linux or Mac computers.

The StorCenter costs $299.99 for the 1TB version, $479.99 for the 2TB version. I think I’m going to buy one when it is available this week.

Deni Connor is principal analyst for Storage Strategies NOW.