EMC Welcomes New NetWin Arrival

Looking to expand its offerings for the lucrative small and medium-sized business (SMB) space, EMC Thursday introduced the NetWin 110, the second member of a NAS storage system family tailored to run Microsoft Windows software.

EMC NAS Product Marketing Manager Tom Joyce says the 110 is designed for customers that would like to add storage in increments, or for those that want
to consolidate low-end server and storage.

But it also comes in response to an explosion in Windows-based NAS storage in the year since the two companies first announced the NetWin 200, a dual-processor system also geared for SMBs.

“We decided we would focus our efforts in that part of market,” Joyce says of the snowballing Windows NAS demand. “There are an awful lot of customers that want something that’s Windows based, and there are a tremendous amount of benefits to it as we look to things like [Microsoft] Exchange.”

EMC NetWin 110

The box is based on Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003, which boasts features such as Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service for local snapshots. Moreover, it backs up data faster and more reliably than comparable tape storage offerings, and a customer can install it fairly easily and in minutes, according to Joyce.

The system can consolidate files, databases, and print services on Microsoft Exchange 2003 and is optimized to run LEGATO RepliStor for data protection
at branch offices, LEGATO NetWorker to provide backup to disk, and EMC’s OnCourse content distribution software.

At 1 unit (1U) size, Joyce told internetnews.com the NetWin 110 is a single processor server that directly attaches to both the CLARiiON and CLARiiON CX EMC servers for the midrange. Its list price is $6,100.

Unlike the NetWin 200, the 110 will be sold only through channels, which Joyce says is a deliberate attempt to show the EMC can be more friendly with its partner channels. It will be sold through authorized EMC distributors such as Arrow Electronics, Avnet Hall-Mark, and Tech Data.

After reigning in the large enterprise, and to a lesser degree the mid-range, EMC has made a brash foray into the SMB space with the NetWin line, geared to wrangle market share from rivals such as HP and IBM .

Research firms such as Forrester have said the SMB space is poised for explosive growth as businesses with 100 to 1,000 employees are clamoring for affordable infrastructure with high-end functionality. Larger vendors such as EMC, IBM, and HP are positioned to offer that.

Story courtesy of Internet News.

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