Intel’s New SMB Storage Is Out — Disks Not Included

As The Station previewed on Oct. 26, Intel today revealed that it is getting into the small and midsize business/home user storage market.

Chip maker Intel actually has been making small storage-type systems for about three years, but few people knew about it because none of the products were Intel-branded. They’ve all been sent to OEMs, who slapped on their logos and resold ’em.

The new Intel Entry Storage System SS4200x, unveiled today, is being distributed through Intel’s channel partners in two models: the hardware-only SS4200-EHW, and the SS4200-E, which comes with integrated EMC software for a starting price of about $500.

Be warned, though: Neither unit includes the actual storage drives — you are buying the appliance only. Your local reseller will have to throw the drives separately into the package, and that will add several hundred dollars to the final bill, depending upon whether you buy one, two, three or four of them.

The fully loaded Intel SS4200-E includes software from EMC to create an NAS (network-attached storage) appliance for the small business, SOHO (small office, home office) and digital home markets. The system supports Windows and Mac clients and includes support for 11 languages.