Microsoft plans to bring its Windows Storage Server operating system, now available only to OEMs, to a wider range of custom system builders with the rollout of its upcoming Longhorn version of Windows.
This week, Microsoft also is slated to release an addition to the Windows Storage Server (WSS) OS that will enable OEMs to build storage appliances with both NAS and iSCSI SAN capabilities. Microsoft, too, has released Windows Server 2003 SP2 to private beta.
Windows Storage Server turns an industry-standard server into a NAS appliance. Claude Lorenson, group product manager for storage at Microsoft, said the Redmond, Wash., software giant plans to expand availability of the platform from OEMs to the system builder community, but he wouldn't specify a date for when such a move--which Microsoft has discussed for a couple years--would occur.
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