However, the challenge for smaller companies is said to be to find a low-cost solution-rich in functionality. SES Electronics believes it has an answer for the local market.

Explains Alex Sivan, MD of SES Electronics in SA: "There are many costly and complex storage and back-up solutions available to meet the specific high end requirements of enterprise. However, the SME market that faces the same challenges is limited in choice. It needs an affordable yet feature-rich storage solution, but is often forced to choose an expensive or inappropriate solution that does not meet its needs or, worse, it forgoes purchasing a solution, leaving the business vulnerable."

SES Electronics, he says, went on a quest to source a solution that would meet the storage needs and requirements of the SME market. This month, the company will be delivering the Ceiborg Data Storage solution to the local market. Dubbed the CDS-10, it aims to allow SMEs to create well-organised and secure back-ups using optical media such as CDs and DVDs. SES Electronics will be taking a 100% channel-focused approach, and will supply the product only to the reseller market.

Sivan says: "The CDS-10 solution is an automatic back-up and archiving system that includes enterprise functionality, making it the only storage product that offers these features for SMEs with a price tag in the region of R8000."

The solution packs up to 470GB of uncompressed data when storing data on DVDs and one terabyte of compressed data. CD media offers up to 70GB of uncompressed data and 150GB of compressed data. This aims to provide users with a choice of media according to their storage needs and requirements.

Sivan continues: "Although tape is often used as the preferred media in archiving applications, it is expensive, cumbersome and slow to retrieve. Tape also makes use of a variety of formats that 'tie' the customer in to using a particular type of media. Optical media on the other hand has become commoditised, making it readily available from many outlets, including major retailers. Optical media also allows for fast retrieval of data, eliminating any unnecessary delay when restoring business critical information. In addition, the solution delivers an impressive cost per Gigabyte of data - approximately R15."

Once data is backed up and archived, it is paramount to ensure specific segments of it are easily identified. The CDS-10 solution incorporates a printer that labels each CD and the system indexes the information according to the back-up session, date and company information, Sivan adds.