Netgear Adds Replication, Cloud Options to New ReadyNAS Family

Netgear’s latest offering in the small and medium business (SMB) storage market is a series of ReadyNAS Pro desktop storage systems with support for VMware and Microsoft virtual machines (VMs), a new replication option, and a free 12 month cloud storage subscription.

Announced today and available later this month, the Netgear (NASDAQ: NTGR) ReadyNAS Pro family includes 2-bay, 4-bay, and 6-bay desktop products that range in capacity and price, starting at $699 for a 2TB ReadyNAS Pro 2 and rising to $3,999 for a 12TB ReadyNAS Pro 6.

Like its larger ReadyNAS brethren, the new ReadyNAS Pro models have been VMware Ready certified for vSphere and support Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 for Hyper-V. In addition, the systems support backup software packages from Acronis, StorageCraft, Symantec (Backup Exec), Veeam and Vizioncore.

Two of the more intriguing software options for the ReadyNAS Pro family come in the form of ReadyNAS Vault and ReadyNAS Replicate.

ReadyNAS Vault is a subscription-based cloud storage service for online file archive and disaster recovery. Each member of the new Pro family includes a free 12 month, 100GB subscription as an incentive for SMBs to dip their proverbial toes into the cloud.

ReadyNAS Replicate, a software application for multi-site file backup, restore and disaster recovery, provides a management interface that lets customers schedule multi-site backup jobs and to restore files across locations between ReadyNAS devices.

Drew Meyer, director of storage marketing for Netgear, said Replicate also arms resellers with the ability to deliver managed backup and recovery services to end users.

ReadyNAS Replicate is available now from any Netgear PowerShift Partner and requires a standalone transferable license per desktop or rack-mount system. The suggested price for the desktop ReadyNAS 2-, 4- and 6-bay Pro and Ultra families is $199. A Replicate license for current rack-mount ReadyNAS products is $399.

Meyer said the features and functions of the ReadyNAS family provide the underpinnings for virtualization deployments. “There are five things that you need to build a proper virtualized environment: servers, a hypervisor technology, and the remaining three – network storage, a switching infrastructure, and security – are all products that Netgear can provide.”

ReadyNAS Pro, Vault and Replicate are all part of Netgear’s continued effort to move upstream out of the consumer/prosumer storage market stake a claim in the growing virtualization market for small and medium businesses. “In this segment, people are looking at us in a different light than they used to. As we release more products in this area, we will be announcing software products for management,” said Meyer. “We have nothing to lose by moving up.”

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