The new device will see EMC expand its NAS offering downwards into more direct competition with NAS rival Network Appliance Inc. By choosing to use a cut-down version of Windows to power a mid-range or low-end NAS device, EMC is following the lead set by other suppliers including Dell, IBM Corp and Hewlett Packard Co.

EMC also said it will also rework its storage management software to manage both Windows servers and Windows-based NAS boxes, and that the two companies will perform joint marketing and support. Joe Tucci, EMC CEO pushed the boat out all the way when he said during a launch presentation: We believe that Windows will be the premier operating system in a networked storage environment.

The software rework will be completed by the third quarter, and the two companies would give no details about the joint marketing or support schemes. EMC’s storage arrays already support Windows, and Microsoft has already provided EMC with access to its protocols. EMC’s vice president of marketing Chuck Hollis said that the technical collaboration trumpeted by the two companies is simply about supporting Microsoft features more rapidly. Compatibility engineering means a day late and a feature short. This will close that gap.

EMC’s box, which will be powered by Intel processors and has been christened the NetWin 200, will ship in the third quarter. The NetWin 200 will compete with other mid-range NAS devices costing between $50,000 and $135,000, in the sector in which NetApp has performed most strongly to date.

The NetWin 200 will actually comprise a Windows-based NAS head and EMC’s existing Clariion arrays, and the entry-level $50,000 configuration will provide 1TB of storage capacity together with what EMC promised will be a ready-to-go package of software that will include replication functions. EMC’s current NAS product, the Cellera NAS head, carries a starting price of around $135,000.

EMC’s existing Cellera device is powered by the company’s Dart operating system, an operating system which is more highly tuned than Windows for NAS file serving. EMC said that it would have made no marketing sense to move down market with a cut-down version of the Celerra. The biggest selling feature of NAS storage devices compared to direct-or SAN-attached block-level devices is their ease of use. Entry-level and mid-range NAS buyers want the familiarity of Windows-powered NAS devices, and their compatibility with other servers, said Chuck Hollis, marketing vice president at EMC.

Look at the landscape today. Anybody that doesn’t have Windows-powered NAS or a good compatibility story is going to suffer, Hollis said. At the end of January, Microsoft was quoting IDC figures that showed that within two years of their launch, Windows-powered NAS boxes had gained a 30% share of global shipments. Yesterday, it claimed a 38% share.

Although the device will be sold by EMC’s direct sales force, Tucci said that the majority of the devices will sell through resellers servicing the mid-range market. Our biggest partners Dell and Fujitsu Siemens will be encouraged to sell the NetWin 200, Tucci said. Dell however declined to comment on whether such a deal is likely. We’re not going to talk about this, a spokesman for the company said. plans.

Late in 2001 EMC and Dell resurrected a deal under which Dell has since then very successfully sold EMC’s reworked mid-range Clarrion storage arrays. By last October, Dell said it had acquired 1,100 new customers for EMC. The company manufactures low-end Clariions that carry a badge marked Dell-EMC. Yesterday both EMC and Dell insisted that the NetWin 200 will not compete with Dell’s NAS devices, which are also powered by Windows. Although there may be some overlap between the most expensive Dell boxes and the cheapest EMC boxes, broadly the Dell boxes are intended for a lower-end market, the two companies said. In a press release announcing the NetWin 200, Microsoft included a statement of support from Dell’s president and COO Kevin Rollins.

Overlap between EMC and Dell is inevitable, according to Arun Taneja, founder and analyst at the Taneja Group. EMC understandably needs to extend the breadth of their NAS family of products, given their current presence is only at the high end. It will be interesting to see how they will avoid a clash with Dell however, as they scale down. If the Windows technology in NetWin 200 is the same – or mostly the same – a clash will occur, he said.

Randy Kerns, analyst at the Evaluator Group, took the opposite view. He said that EMC’s intention with the new box is to win more business through its reseller and VAR channel, which it has been focused on expanding recently. Because EMC does not offer a mid-range NAS box, some of those resellers will have turned to other storage vendors to complete deals, he said. How many of them compete head-to-head with Dell? Not many, he said.

Source: Computerwire