Procom NAS To Get Microsoft NodProcom NAS To Get Microsoft Nod

Procom Technology Inc. this week will get approval for its new NetForce 3000 storage to join Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility List. Making the list will be a boon to businesses that run Microsoft Exchange on network-attached storage devices. Microsoft pulled support for all NAS devices last spring because it couldn't guarantee the integrity of information that came through its own common Internet file system protocol, which all NAS devices support. At the time, Microsoft said it would only guarantee information integrity when the information is run through networked storage that processes blocks of data instead of files of information--a decision that has left users in a bind. "If customers run Exchange on storage not certified by Microsoft, that's going to lead to a lot of finger-pointing among vendors," International Data Corp. analyst John McArthur says.

Procom delivers its NetForce 3000 NAS devices with its Duet storage area network controller attached. Duet can interface with SANs and run Exchange information through as blocks of data.

Parsa Rohani, Procom's VP of marketing, admits that Procom didn't create Duet on its own. Procom came up with the idea after Microsoft's decision and added Duet through a deal with IBM's Mylex storage controller division.

For National City Mortgage, the Miamisburg, Ohio, business unit of National City Corp., the Microsoft support is good news. Last year, it bought two Procom NetForce devices for $300,000, cutting its storage costs in half, instead of buying high-end Network Appliance Inc. devices. Each Procom device supports more than 2 terabytes of data and acts as a business-continuity system.

"Without Duet, we would have built more disk [space] around our Exchange servers," says Kevin Marvin, IS chief architect at National City Mortgage. "The coolest thing about Duet is that I can also install larger Unix systems running Oracle this summer." He hopes to expand the lower-cost Procom disk space instead of buying more expensive disk space from one of the Unix players.