14 DAY TRIAL // Western Digital today announced that it has signed an OEM software agreement with Microsoft Corporation to include the Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials operating system into an upcoming range of small-office storage server products.
"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.
Right now, WD is selling a wide range of NAS devices, but these products will be the company's first small-office servers for data storage.
The decision to enter this business was taken based on the findings of Forrester Research, which states that SMBs will outpace the projected IT market growth rate of 7.1%.
According to the same research firm, fifty-three percent of small and medium-sized businesses indicate that they will increase their storage spend, so this market could prove to be extremely lucrative for WD.
"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,” said Thomas Gallivan, WD's vice president of marketing for SMB branded products.
“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," concluded the company's rep.
Western Digital hasn't revealed any information regarding the release date of these products, but, considering that the company has just signed the OEM agreement with Microsoft, it may take a while until its first small-office storage servers will hit retail.