Microsoft to make big push on NAS market
Microsoft to make big push on NAS market
Microsoft is setting its sights on the higher-end network attached storage (NAS) market, with the software giant planning to aggressively price its soon to be launched Storage Server 2003 software to undercut the market.
The move follows hot on the heels of the introduction of Microsoft's Windows Storage Server 2003 at the company's TechEd showcase.
Microsoft says its software is now ready for larger enterprises, thanks to a ramping up of the performance compared to its existing NAS software and new features such as support for clustering more NAS devices and a new data replication tool.
This latest launch will represent another major step forward for Microsoft in the enterprise storage market. Since the launch of the company's Enterprise Storage Division in January last year, the market share for Windows in network attached storage devices has shot up to 41 percent.
It seems that rival NAS vendor Network Appliance is set to have a tussle on its hands to fend off competition from Microsoft in the NAS space.
A spokesman for Network Appliance admitted that while Microsoft has the edge over it in terms of pricing, but in other areas, such as overall performance, NetApps offerings are more than a match for Microsoft's, going as far as to say that when it comes to integrating Windows, Linux and Unix systems, NetApp's NAS devices are still the best bet for companies to invest in.
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