By William Fellows
Network Appliance Inc CEO Dan Warmenhoven told ComputerWire Inc that the company’s new low-end network attached filer system will debut at around $12,500, about half the current entry price point. Warmenhoven said the product is not being aimed at any specific new markets but notes that the company will now be able to address a growing requirement from branch offices. It will include the same functionality as existing servers, but is moving the high-end capacity to 6Tb from 1.4Tb today.
Warmenhoven notes there is an increasing amount of confusion over the types of storage markets, but says that in reality the industry is not about network attached storage (NAS) versus storage area networks (SAN), it’s NAS plus SAN. SAN encompasses NAS in his book. That’s why Network Appliance has partnered with high-flying SAN Fibre Channel switch company Brocade Communications. The two will come up with technology that enables users to reconfigure Fibre Channel networks (often called fabrics) on the fly using NetApp filers and Brocade switches.
Despite a disappointing quarter for its NetCache product Warmenhoven says it is potentially the most promising part of the business and is now getting the majority of investment. It plays directly to our strength, he said.
