While in Las Vegas for CES2013, I managed to catch up with Shawn Shu, President of ASUSTOR Inc., the NAS operation from ASUS in Taipei. Read on for some pictures of upcoming enterprise units and some feedback on overall ASUSTOR product direction.
While in Las Vegas for CES2013, I managed to catch up with Shawn Shu, President of ASUSTOR Inc., the NAS operation from ASUS in Taipei. ASUSTOR recently entered the NAS market, and we reviewed one of their first units here. Let me first remind you about who ASUSTOR is and what they have been up to:
About ASUSTOR
Founded in 2011, ASUSTOR Inc. is a leading innovator and provider of private cloud storage (network attached storage) and video surveillance (network video recorder) solutions. We are devoted to providing the world with unparalleled user experiences and the most complete set of network storage solutions possible.
So far, we’ve seen Atom-based consumer and SMB units from ASUSTOR, and we liked the hardware build, performance and UI of the Linux-based firmware. However, since they are still in startup mode here in the US, a concern of mine is support, and I also wanted to clarify if they were going to attack the ARM and enterprise product markets.
Shawn gave me some very good news: ASUSTOR plans to continue to introduce new products, first in the enterprise and then several ARM-based units at lower price points to compete head-on with ARM product offereings from QNAP and Synology. In addition, ASUSTOR is in the process of establishing a support capability in Southern California to provide assistance to North American customers. We’ll keep an eye on what is happening at ASUSTOR, and as new products are released and the in-process support organization is established, we’ll keep you posted.
In the meantime, check out these unannounced rackmount systems intended for the enterprise, which were on display in the ASUSTOR suite. You are the first to see them!
There is a 1U four-bay system and a 2U with nine bays. The design included some very nice features, including:
- Indicator lights on both the front and rear of the system, allowing for easier identification of issues in the datacenter racking;
- Easily accessible and replaceable fans;
- Easy access to the motherboard to facilitate upgrades/maintenance;
- Software control of the LED indicators, again to facilitate identification of the issue unit in the rack.
Shawn was not ready to announce pricing on these units, but indicated that ASUSTOR would be competitive, and since Shawn has been in senior leadership positions with both QNAP and Synology, I expect that ASUSTOR will price relative to those competitors.
In addition, Shawn demoed the home entertainment application Boxee on the ASUSTOR units. When I did my first review, I did not touch on that very deeply, so stay tuned for a follow-up review highlighting the mobile app integration and entertainment support features built into every ASUSTOR NAS unit.
It looks like a busy year is in store for 2013 for ASUSTOR and we’ll continue to bring you the story!
Comments are closed.