Euro-Zone New Orders Sink, Pointing to Slow Recovery

LONDON -- Euro-zone industrial new orders posted their sharpest annual drop on record in April, in a sign that the single-currency area's recovery from recession could be painfully slow, official data showed Thursday.
New orders fell 1.0% on a month-to-month basis and 35.5% on the year, the steepest annual drop since comparable records began in 1995, the European Union's statistics agency said. That compares with revised declines of 0.2% on the month and 26.5% on the year in March.
April's slump was sharper than the market consensus estimate of declines of 0.4% on the month and 32.0% on the year from a Dow Jones Newswires survey of economists last week. March's falls were raised from 0.8% on the month and 26.9% on the year reported last month.
The data suggest that although there are signs the euro zone may be over the worst of its most severe recession since World War II, the region has a long way to recover.
The latest preliminary purchasing managers index report released by Markit Economics Tuesday suggested the slump in the manufacturing sector is bottoming out, with new orders dropping at their weakest rate for 10 months in June.
Nevertheless, Thursday's Eurostat data showed that industrial new orders excluding the usually volatile heavy transport component fell a record 35.3% on the year in April after dropping 26.3% in March. On a monthly basis, it declined 0.9% after gaining 0.1% in March.
New orders for intermediate goods slumped 38.3% on the year, while orders for durable consumer goods dropped 26.0% -- both the largest declines on an annual basis ever recorded. New orders for capital goods dropped 39.1% on the year, while orders for nondurable consumer goods were 8.9% weaker than in April last year.
On the month, there were declines in orders in all categories except nondurable consumer goods, which saw a 1.8% increase, the strongest monthly gain since June last year, Eurostat said.

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SMB data storage news briefs: NetGear announces ReadyNAS 3200 for SMBs

NetGear announces ReadyNAS 3200 for SMBs
NetGear announced a new addition to its family of ReadyNAS products for SMBs. The ReadyNAS 3200 is a 2U 12-bay unified storage platform that provides up to 24 TB in a single system. The ReadyNAS 3200 offers redundant power supplies and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports. The product is aimed at SMBs looking to implement server virtualization, file sharing, disk-based backup and iSCSI SANs.
ReadyNAS 3200 features 12 bays and can support up to 250 users. Standard features include continuous data protection (CDP) software and the ReadyNAS Remote drag-and-drop remote file sharing utility. The embedded ReadyNAS Vault service offers optional cloud-based data backup and disaster recovery services for 25 cents per gigabyte per month.
ProStor Systems announces general availability of ProStor InfiniVault 2.0
ProStor Systems announced the general availability of Release 2 for their ProStor InfiniVault family of products. New features in ProStor InfiniVault 2.0 include remote replication for disaster recovery, read/write vaults and dual Ethernet adapters.
Simply Continuous launches disaster recovery services for SMBs
Simply Continuous announced its Data Recovery Vault and AppAlive disaster recovery services geared toward SMBs. Data Recovery Vault and AppAlive integrate into any existing backup infrastructure and enable users to monitor or restore their digital assets through the use of a Web portal. The Simply Continuous patent-pending Universal Recovery Platform integrates deduplication, network acceleration and secure transmission and off-site monitoring. Users can access real-time status of their data, as well as log and monitor issues through the Simply Continuous online portal. The data can be recovered in four different, independent modes.
Seagate announced new additions to BlackArmor family for SMBs
Seagate Technology announced three additional BlackArmor product offerings: the BlackArmor NAS 220 storage server, the BlackArmor WS 110 external drive workstation and the BlackArmor PS 110 portable drive.
The BlackArmor NAS 220 Storage Server is a small-business-specific network-attached storage product designed to provide data protection for up to 20 PCs with up to 4 TB of shared storage capacity. For small office, home-based professionals or remote staff, the BlackArmor WS 110 external drive is a direct-attached external storage and data backup offering. The BlackArmor PS 110 portable drive is aimed at employees who travel with business-critical files.
Toshiba introduces new portable hard drives
Toshiba Storage Device Division launched the next generation of its USB 2.0 portable hard drives, featuring complete system backup, password-protected encryption and enhanced software features. The new products feature software for Windows and Mac environments. Toshiba is the first storage manufacturer to include NTI BackupNow EZ software, which allows users to back up their complete system with a single click.
Western Digital adds RAID 1 to My Book World Edition II network storage system
Western Digital introduced its newly redesigned My Book World Edition II dual-drive network storage system with capacities of up to 4 TB. It has also added two mirrored (RAID 1) drives and continuous backup software. The My Book World Edition II network storage system uses RAID 1 to automatically and continuously maintain a second copy of a user's data.

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