EMC Unveils NAS Gateway for Windows SMB Market

EMC is diving deeper into the elusive, Windows-dominated small and midsize business depths with a lower-end alternative for its entry-level network-attached storage gateway NetWin family.

The storage titan on Thursday unveiled the NetWin 110, which is scheduled to ship in early June for $6,100. The Microsoft Windows Storage Server-based NetWin 110 provides SMBs with a less-pricey option to EMCs NetWin 200, which costs $17,200. The new product offers support for Microsoft Exchange 2003 to provide branch office protection and simplified e-mail, print and file services management for customers looking to consolidate servers and add incremental storage in Microsoft Windows environments, said officials of Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC.

EMC is positioning NetWin 110 as a “channel only” product. The box will be offered exclusively through EMC distributors including Arrow Electronics Inc., Avnet Hall-Mark, Tech Data, and the Technology Integration Group. EMC officials say the company is aggressively following CEO Joe Tuccis edict to move further down market and improve channel performance by shifting away from a purely direct sales mindset.

An NAS that attaches directly to EMCs Clariion array, NetWin 110 is a 1U Intel Server running on a single 2.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU featuring 1GB DDR-DRAM memory. Further, both the NetWin 110 and NetWin 200 can attach to any Clariion CX array and SAN (storage area network) servers.

The NetWin 110 will include Legato RepliStor and Legato NetWorker as trial versions designed for integration with SAN or file-serving needs. Customers can purchase the Legato options as an add-on bundle with the product. However, the bundled option is not available as part of the trial software, according to EMC officials.

In terms of scale, NetWin 110 is designed for Windows environments featuring up to 500 Exchange seats. Conversely, the NetWin 200 version supports upward of 750 to 1000 Exchange seats.

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