Western Digital has announced that it will be offering a small-office storage server product and has signed an OEM software agreement with Microsoft Corporation to include the Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials operating system software. WD will combine its leading storage technologies with Microsoft's operating system to deliver a complete storage solution for the small business market. The result will be a product that simplifies connection, protection and collaboration online for small businesses and the information technology services organizations that support them.

Fast, dependable and secure access to data, along with complete backup and recovery capability are becoming as crucial for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as it is for large enterprises. According to Forrester Research, SMBs will outpace the projected IT market growth rate of 7.1%. In terms of infrastructure spending increases, storage and servers top SMBs' hardware budget plans. Fifty-three percent of SMBs indicate that they will increase their storage spend.(1) To serve this market, WD joined with Microsoft to incorporate the most advanced online features so businesses can easily and securely share information with clients, consultants or satellite offices located anywhere in the world.