Can NetApp Compete with Western Digital and Iomega on the Small Business and Medium Business market?

Data Storage News
24 September 2007
Speed boost for external storage
By Chris Mellor, Techworld

“Western Digital and Iomega have introduced better external storage products for small and medium enterprises.”

“The MyBook Office Edition from Western Digital has from 320GB to 1TB of storage in a paperback-book-sized desktop enclosure. It connects to a host server or PC by USB 2.0 and offers automatic and continuous backup. Working files can be set so that any change to them is backed up, thus providing continuous data protection.”

“The Pro NAS 150d Server is also a rackmounted product and offers up to 3TB of storage plus the Windows file services support.”

“They also offer hot-swap drives and Retrospect backup software. The 200r additionally has CA eTrust Antivirus software and BrightStor ARCserve OEM edition with Disaster Recovery.”

“Both products support file access by Windows, Unix and Linux clients. The 150d 3TB Server is shipping now for $1,699 (about £850 at ordinary conversion rates). The 200r 1TB Server will be available later this month for $1,899 (about £950). The NAS 200r 1TB Server with Print will also be available later this month for $2,499 (about £1,250).”

It seems that the price delta on the FAS2050 and FAS2020 for the general SMB marketplace may be too high. But there are specific segments that may need a NetApp solution, but then since they use the Intel Celeron and have very little memory it may be hard to find those niches.

The market or government intervention will determine the winners over time.