Wednesday March 1
5:10 PM ET
Microsoft, Intel Unveil Small Business Network Box
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Software giant Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) and chip giant Intel
Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) on Wednesday unveiled
a new device they said will help millions of small businesses wire their
offices and connect to the Internet.
The device, based on Intel's Celeron processor and running a version of
Microsoft's Windows NT business operating system, would act like a
mini-server, letting up to 25 computers share files, printing and Internet
access, company officials told a conference call.
Intel already has several business appliances on the market that handle
individual tasks like printing, file sharing and e-mail, but the company
said the new device will be its first to integrate all of those functions.
Unlike regular servers, the workhorse computers that are the foundation
of business networks, the new device can be set up in about one hour,
helping small business managers avoid the headaches of running a
complicated network.
``You can kind of think of it as a network in a box. You can take it
out of the box and plug PCs into it,'' said Kirt Bailey, Intel's product
manager for small business networking.
For Microsoft's part, the Redmond, Wash.-based company sees the
Intel-branded appliance as a way to get millions of smaller businesses
that lack technical experience plugged into the wired economy.
Although the appliance runs Windows NT, which Microsoft has supplanted
with its new Windows 2000 platform, the company hopes to woo businesses
that are not yet ready to handle the industrial-strength platform.
``Where we see it fitting is more at the entry level, small business
part of the marketplace,'' said Vince Mendillo, lead product manager for
Windows NT Embedded at Microsoft.
As a business gets bigger, Microsoft hopes they will upgrade to Windows
2000, which cost $1 billion and took three years to develop.
``As small businesses grow, as they move up, Windows 2000 server is the
next level ... where you need to do things that are more sophisticated,
like Web hosting and remote services,'' Mendillo said.
Intel's Bailey said there were 7.5 million small businesses in the
United States with less than 50 employees and more than 30 million such
operations worldwide.
``We believe there are significant opportunities for small businesses
to use this to start deploying their e-business infrastructure,'' he said.
Two versions of the device will be sold. The high-end one will have a
466-megahertz processor with 64 megabytes of RAM and a 13-gigabyte main
hard-drive, with a second 13-gigabyte drive for back-up. It will sell for
$1,999.
A cheaper version that sells for $1,499 will have a slower,
366-megahertz processor and only one hard-drive.
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