EMC Welcomes New NetWin Arrival

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

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

But it also comes in response to an explosion in Windows-based NAS storage
in the past year, since the two companies 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 said
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.”

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, Joyce said.

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), 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 said was 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.