The software, which succeeds Microsofts Windows Powered NAS platform, comes in an Enterprise Edition for enterprise data centers, and in a Standard Edition for departments, branch offices, and small and medium-sized businesses. It can handle as little as 160 Gbytes and as much as 40 Tbytes or more, and includes features like Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) for point-in-time copies, Distributed File System (DFS), eight-node server clustering, multipath I/O, and iSCSI support, Microsoft says.
The release of Windows Storage Server is no surprise -- Microsoft in June said that it expected to launch the new software this month -- but industry observers say they are impressed by the weight the company is putting behind the push (see Microsoft Powers Up NAS Play).
The biggest thing here is how serious Microsoft is about this, says Arun Taneja, an analyst with the Taneja Group. I dont think theyre going to be satisfied with just the low-end of the NAS space.
Of course, companies like Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) and low-end NAS player Snap Appliance Inc. have been painfully aware of Microsofts gravitas about entering this market for quite some time. Since the computer giant founded its storage division in January 2002, it has grabbed 41 percent of the NAS appliance market in terms of units shipped, according to IDC.
And Microsofts Muglia says the company has no intention of stopping there. My goal is that in the NAS space, people are as likely to buy Microsoft as they are in the general server space, he says.
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