ANTenna Blog -- Networking & Communications

Long, long ago in a galaxy, far, far away, network equipment vendors produced items, such as routers and switches. Recently, these companies have been moving into a number of other venues, such as security and even storage. So in response to this trend, a leading small and medium company network equipment supplier added a high-end storage system to its product line.

NETGEAR entered the storage market in 2008 and now has a handful of products geared to small and medium businesses – as well as consumers. Pushing up the performance ladder, the company announced the ReadyNAS 3200, a 2 unit, 12-bay storage platform that provides up to 24T bytes of storage and support for up to 250 users. The system features redundant power supplies and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports. In addition, ReadyNAS Remote’s drag-and-drop remote file sharing utility enables data center managers to monitor storage use at branch offices.

NETGEAR has carved out a solid niche in the low end of the small and medium business market. Like many network equipment suppliers, the company has been searching for new markets to branch into. The new product boosts the top end of the company’s capabilities from 8T bytes to 24T bytes. Information intensive small and medium businesses, such as marketing and financial services, may be attracted to the new device.

Pricing for the ReadyNAS 3200 starts at $4,999. Like other storage vendors, NETGEAR is moving to augmenting its products with cloud based services. The new storage system works with the ReadyNAS Vault service, which is optional and features backup and disaster recovery functions with prices starting at $.25 per G byte per month.

The company faces challenges as it tries to extend its business. The economic downturn has tightened IT purse strings, so vendors are finding it more difficult to branch into new markets. As noted, dividing lines between networking device and other types of products have been blurring. Consequently, NETGEAR finds itself competing with a widening array of suppliers. In addition recently, many well known vendors have focused on the small and medium business market sector. Consequently, questions are arising about its ability to navigate the changing competitive landscape.