NetGEAR Rolls out ReadyNAS with Online Storage: We Have Questions

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As reported on bMighty.com, NetGear has introduced a new ReadyNAS storage device aimed at the SMB Market. The device includes the capability to use an integrated online backup service with packages as low as $1/GB per month.

As always, we have our questions:

  • Is the fee based on native or compressed space?
  • Is the online storage a vault or just a copy of the onsite backup?
  • What are the retention options and limitations?
  • Is the online storage a full backup service? Or, just a ‘most recent copy’?
  • What is the method for offline restoration?

Backup is easy; Recovery is hard.

NetGEAR is positioning the box as a bridge between online and in-house backups — trying to satisfy customers at all points on the comfort scale. Time will tell which parts of the market they can satisfy.

10 Things Steve Ballmer (and Microsoft) is Thinking About

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As reported by ChannelWeb, Steve Ballmer touched on many issues at Microsoft’s Strategic Update Meeting in New York last week. Here is my take after reading the quotes:

  1. SEARCH: Microsoft is not making money from Search and may be slowing its rate of investment
  2. Microsoft is threatened by netbooks and is considering how to adjust its Windows 7 strategy to avoid loosing market share to Linux and other OS’s
  3. Google, with Android, and Linux threaten Microsoft’s client operating system dominance
  4. Microsoft denies they are creating a smartphone, but have they really accepted the “market mojo” of the iPhone and Blackberry?
  5. Microsoft knows they need a lower cost server operating system — watch for Foundation Server
  6. Microsoft still sees pirated versions of Windows as the biggest threat to their OS business
  7. Microsoft IE is losing market share: Ballmer admitted that “Browsers are key features of operating systems”, in contrast to their answer to anti-trust concerns that IE is not part of the OS
  8. Microsoft wants to R&D itself through the current economic times
  9. Microsoft has not figured out how to make money with Office Live, yet; Windows Azure (server in the cloud) may be ready by November 2009
  10. OpenOffice is a growing threat, starting with the educational market

In all of his comments, Ballmer seems to be missing the gap between the features Microsoft deliver and the subset of those features most customers actually use. If the threats he acknowledges offer simpler feature sets, but meet most customers’ needs, Microsoft could be in big trouble.