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MS enters storage appliance market


Johannesburg, 07 Apr 2006

Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, saying it provides high-speed plug-and-play secure storage for small to large organisations through original equipment manufacturing (OEM) partners.

"The release is part of Microsoft`s universal distributed storage initiative that is aimed at reducing storage costs by providing scalable, high-end functionality on industry-standard hardware," says Manoj Bhoola, server and tools business group manager at Microsoft SA.

"Microsoft has identified a trend in the storage environment of an increasing number of large and medium-sized companies implementing storage area network (SAN) solutions as prices come down," says Bhoola.

The most likely early adopters of the storage solution are organisations already using Windows Server 2003, because together, these products deliver software-enabled SAN functionality using Internet small computer system interface (iSCSI) technology.

Within the Microsoft customer base, Bhoola says organisations that stand to benefit most are those requiring a high availability of data for high transaction volumes as well as organisations that have a distributed or branch environment.

"Previously bound to applications in the high-end market, the iSCSI technology partners are excited about exposure to mid-sized organisations, which represent a whole new market," says Bhoola.

Available through network attached storage (NAS) appliance products from OEMs, Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 is a dedicated file and print server that Microsoft claims can reduce data management costs and disk use by up to 50% through single-instance storage.

Bhoola says the new storage product is based on MS Windows Server and was developed with partners such as HP, Dell and IBM in response to customer demand for an OEM "black box" solution that could simply be plugged into the network to provide a robust storage solution.

Microsoft says it outperforms the file-serving capability of general-purpose file servers by up to 25% and is the only NAS operating system that allows multiple users to collaborate on documents by integrating MS Windows SharePoint Services.

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