Flood of Netgear Releases Includes ReadyNAS, ProSafe Updates

Netgear on Friday made a smorgasboard of product and partnership announcements related to some of its most important product families.

Chief among the debuts is ReadyNAS Pro, a family of business storage products intended for SMBs with small-scale virtualization projects and modest -- but not unsophisticated -- storage needs. The desktop products, which come in 2-bay, 4-bay and 6-bay models, range from $699 (for the Pro 2, 2TB model), to $3,999 (for the Pro 6, 12 TB model), with various TB levels and configurations in between.

The Pros are certified for VMware's vSphere and Microsoft's Hyper V, and are also compatible with a number of other vendor offerings, including virtual backup software compatibility with Veeam and Vizioncore, physical and virtual backup software compatibility with Acronis and StorageCraft, and Symantec Backup Agent.

The ReadyNAS pros are ideal for hybrid cloud situations, said Drew Meyer, director of storage marketing for Netgear, because they roll neatly into ReadyNAS vault, Netgear's NAS-linked online disaster recovery service. The Pros also come with a 12-month, 100 GB ReadyNAS Vault subscription.

For channel partners, Meyer added, hybrid situations also create ideal situations where VARs add monthly service revenue on top of an initial hardware installation.

On the networking side of Netgear's house, the vendor introduced four new models in its ProSafe Plus Switch family. Among the highlights are the eight-port desktop GS108PE ($175) -- first in Netgear's ProSafe Plus line to over Power-over-Ethernet for supporting IP Phones and other devices. Other models, including the eight-port desktop GS108E ($85), the 16-port desktop GS116E ($196) and the rack-mounted 24-port JGS524E ($289), all provide Gigabit Ethernet.

Other announcements from Netgear Friday include next-business-day onsite service on all business products free of charge to customers, which Netgear will be launching in Europe and expects to reach other geographies over time.

Elsewhere is ReadyNAS Replicate, a software application for scheduling and performing multi-site backup across branch offices, that Netgear will sell through VARs as a managed service option for backup and recovery. For Netgear's ReadyNAS Pro and Ultra lines, the software, sold as a standalone, transferable license, has an MSRP of $199, and an MSRP of $399 for rack-mount ReadyNAS products.

Finally, Netgear on Friday confirmed an OEM partnership with Extreme Networks, through which Netgear will OEM Extreme's BlackDiamond 8800 modular switches under its own 10GE Ethernet switch and networking portfolio. The relationship is multi-year, through 2013, and shipments are expected to begin early in 2011.