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Targeting NetApp

Network Appliance has a target on its back, and companies large and small are taking aim.

Consider these recent news items: ONStor has launched a device called Pantera, which includes its existing Bobcat NAS gateway and for the first time, integral back-end NAS storage. (See ONStor Adds Its Own Back End.)

According to ONStor CEO Bob Miller, his company is tired of seeing NetApp and other NAS makers take money for storage ONStor could provide. "Historically, people spend one dollar on the gateway and three dollars on storage. We found it frustrating to watch us get one dollar when we did all the hard work, and watch the customer who wanted to buy storage from us spend three dollars on somebody else."

ONStor's first official NAS is priced to undercut offerings from NetApp and EMC. What's more, ONStor will continue to sell its gateways with storage from 3PAR, Compellent, Nexsan, and Xiotech to compete with NetApp's unified storage offerings.

Then there's 3PAR, which is also taking aim at NetApp with its newly hatched midrange SANs. (See 3PAR Aims for Midsection.) "Now we're scaling right into the heart of the midrange, so we will fully expect to compete against NetApp and the HP EVA as well as the [EMC] Clariion,” says 3PAR CEO Dave Scott.

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