Johannesburg, 23 Jul 2001
Novell has announced the availability of the Novell NetDevice NAS, the first appliance in the Novell NetDevice family of specialised server appliances.
These Novell soft appliances -- which are shipped as software only and offer customers flexibility to use their choice of new or existing compatible hardware -- are designed to provide customers the power and functionality they need without paying for features they don`t need.
According to Novell sales director James Thomas, the Novell NetDevice NAS is a network-attached storage (NAS) appliance that delivers the entire Novell portfolio of robust file system technologies, with unparalleled security, manageability and reliability features.
"As appliances, Novell`s NetDevice servers can be plugged into any network, regardless of platform, to help companies solve pressing e-business challenges today, without expensive and complex system upgrades."
Storage is a massive challenge for today`s e-businesses. According to IDC, the network attached storage market was forecasted to grow from $835 million (about R6.6 billion) in 1999 to $1.883 billion (R15 billion) in 2000, a 125% year-over-year increase.
IDC expects the NAS market will reach nearly $10 billion (R80 billion) by 2003. In March this year, IDC forecasted the overall specialised server appliance market will reach $12 billion (R96 billion) in 2002. With corporate data storage requirements doubling every 9 to 12 months and the cost of managing new storage at three to five times the price of the storage itself, IT managers are seeking more effective ways for storage provisioning and management. Novell`s NetDevice NAS helps companies tame the storage beast.
"The ever-increasing IT requirements of organisations, along with continued pressure to curb IT budgets, have companies searching for ways to cost-effectively simplify their IT infrastructure," adds Thomas. "The Novell NetDevice family of special-purpose server appliances will lower total cost of ownership while providing the reliable and secure networking technology Novell is known for, all while offering customers freedom to choose the hardware they want, including hardware they already have. With data growing exponentially, storage is a growing issue for companies large and small. The Novell NetDevice NAS helps solve the storage challenge without breaking the bank."
Built on proven Novell NetWare technology, the Novell NetDevice NAS is designed to help companies store, find and retrieve data when and where end-users need it, regardless of the platform the company is running. With Novell`s proven ease-of-management features, this new appliance is particularly compelling for the branch office, workgroup and department markets, where IT resources are at a premium. In fact, the Novell NetDevice NAS is an ideal solution for additional storage in these markets.
Novell NetDevice NAS serves a need that currently is going largely unmet. "With Novell`s storage appliance, we have the ability to dramatically increase our storage capacity at a much lower cost than we could have otherwise," said Mark Clarridge, computer protection program manager for Ames Laboratory US Department of Energy. "We can almost instantly install a server when and where it`s needed with native file access for our heterogeneous computing environment. The browser-based management utility offers administrators independence from traditional platform-specific utilities."
Novell NetDevice NAS is the only NAS appliance on the market that supports not only the Novell NDS eDirectory environment, but also Windows, Unix, Linux and Web-based clients. All have native access to the Novell NetDevice NAS, and all users -- regardless of the client platform -- can be centrally managed across Novell NetDevice NAS appliances through the power of eDirectory, making it as easy to manage an entire fleet of NAS appliances as it is to manage a few. By providing scalable storage to any network client, wired or wireless, and delivering centralised control of enterprise storage, the Novell NetDevice NAS reduces storage management costs. In addition, it creates opportunities to enhance collaboration and integrate enterprise systems, creating a unified network, one Net.
The Novell NetDevice NAS is the industry`s first soft storage appliance, allowing customers to deploy the appliance throughout their entire organisation on the hardware of their choice. This lets organisations operate within existing purchasing policies, leverage contracts with established hardware suppliers, reduce staff training, and even redeploy existing hardware as high performing NAS appliances. The automatic imaging process of the Novell NetDevice appliance allows administrators to fully deploy a system and grant access to thousands of users in about 20 minutes, as simply booting from the Novell NetDevice NAS compact disc automatically images and configures the system.
Novell will work with key hardware partners such as Compaq, Dell, IBM, HP and other vendors to certify popular systems to run the Novell NetDevice NAS. The Novell NetDevice NAS storage appliance will be available the end of August through Novell authorised resellers and solution providers.
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