Iomega will introduce its NAS 120 GB servers

Iomega is launching its NAS 120 GB servers, designed for multi-platform data

consolidation and file sharing, in October, in India, Sanjeev Gupta, Senior BDM,

South Asia, Iomega informed in an exclusive chat with CNS. The tentative pricing

for the same will be in the region of Rs 1.20 lakh.

"Enterprise data management products need the right support and channel

policy. NAS will not be available randomly say at Nehru Place. What we are

looking at are focused partners. Our NAS products have already been launched in

Australia and Singapore. The response there has prompted us to look at a OND

launch in India," informed Gupta. Talks are on at various levels with the

channel, he added.

The NAS server will have 120 GB of Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

(RAID) network capacity, a method of combining multiple hard drives for data

redundancy in case of a hard drive failure. "In layman terms, this means,

that there would be automatic mirror back ups of the data stored,"

elucidates Gupta. It will also come equipped with hot swappable drives.

"This means, say a particular drive is malfunctioning, it can be replaced

as a component, without the entire system getting affected," Gupta adds.

Iomega would also be launching the Zip 750 Mb Firewire drive and the 750 Mb

Atapi drive in November this year, following its recent launch of the Zip 750 Mb

USB 2.0 drive. "Though globally the Zip drive market is moving very slowly,

the India market has been growing steadily. In the US, Zip drives have entered

the maturity stage of the product life cycle, and customers are spoilt for

choice," said Gupta.

He is however not willing to disclose unit shipments of Zip drives to the

Indian market, citing company policy. "But seven percent of the worldwide

revenue comes from the APAC, we are looking at 20 percent of that coming from

the APAC in the next six years," clarifies Seow Meng Ren, Manager, Zip

products (product management), Asia Pacific, Iomega.

"Iomega is looking at the government sector as a prime customer for the

Zip drives. Institutions like the LIC, for example. At the OEM level, a very

high amount of technical compatibility is needed, and we have almost finalized

deals with a major OEM in India," Gupta sums up.

Sudarshna Banerjee


(CNS)