Western Digital announced that they will be offering a NAS server product loaded with Windows® Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials. This is good news for many reasons.
- This gives Western Digital a new product category for future expansion of their product lines.
- Microsoft gets a commitment from a Fortune 500 company to install and use their OEM WSS 2008 R2 Essentials program.
and the best part is that
- As more companies sign on to market Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials, the higher the potential to keep future versions of Windows Home Server in the product mix.
After all, all three products are so closely related, there really is no reason to *not* keep this product family intact.
Actually, to be honest, WSS 2008 R2 Essentials is the one SKU of the three that I would most like to have as a product I could purchase as a separate product off the shelf. Basically, take WHS 2011; increase the number of users/computers to 25; allow it to join a domain; you have one kick-a** product for the home user looking for a Microsoft NAS product.
Assuming the price was right.
And speaking of costs, we will have to wait a bit to find out how much the WD product will cost. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how this product stacks up against the NAS competition found around the world. I’m betting that this partnership might work out just fine.
Be patient in regards to the video. WD @ 02:26:00!
WD® TO ENTER SMALL BUSINESS MARKETPLACE WITH SMALL OFFICE STORAGE SERVERS
Company Teaming with Microsoft to Simplify Workgroup Sharing and Data Protection for Small Business Owners
IRVINE, Calif. – July 12, 2011 – Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC), a leader in digital storage solutions, announced it will be offering a small-office storage server product and has signed an OEM software agreement with Microsoft Corporation to include the Windows® Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials operating system software. WD® will combine its leading storage technologies with Microsoft’s operating system to deliver a complete storage solution for the small business market. The result will be a product that simplifies connection, protection and collaboration online for small businesses and the information technology services organizations that support them.
Fast, dependable and secure access to data, along with complete backup and recovery capability are becoming as crucial for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as it is for large enterprises. According to Forrester Research, SMBs will outpace the projected IT market growth rate of 7.1%. In terms of infrastructure spending increases, storage and servers top SMBs’ hardware budget plans. Fifty-three percent of SMBs indicate that they will increase their storage spend.1 To serve this market, WD joined with Microsoft to incorporate the most advanced online features so businesses can easily and securely share information with clients, consultants or satellite offices located anywhere in the world.
“Small businesses will find great value in the combination of WD’s hardware solutions and the recently released Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials solution from Microsoft. I am excited about the opportunity we have with WD and their solutions for helping small businesses run more efficiently,” said Nick Parker, VP of Worldwide Marketing for the OEM Division at Microsoft.
“By combining Microsoft’s platform with WD’s strength in the storage market, the two organizations bring extraordinary synergies that boost productivity and efficiency for small business. With this, WD will offer storage solutions for small business that provides centralized, online shared storage capable of meeting the storage requirements of the small business owners in today’s fast paced business environment,” said Thomas Gallivan, WD’s vice president of marketing for SMB branded products.
About Jim Clark
Hello. I’m from the heartland of the U.S. Lots of corn and beans, although Iowa is a lot more than just farmland. It also has a few computer enthusiasts (no, not me!). I’ve been around PCs since I got my 1st PC XT aloooong time ago. WGS is one of the first sites I found centered around WHS. And the best. Every once in awhile, I do get away from the KB and enjoy time with and my wife and our 4 kids. And I do have a day job.
