Net-iTech to tap SME market

CIRCUIT EC / Mumbai

Net-iTech Asia Pacific has launched Nitix, a Linux-based operating system for small and medium enterprises in Asia-Pacific. It is to be positioned as a complete business server solution for organisations with 5 to 500 users. It features messaging and collaboration, security enhanced Internet access, and protected data storage. It is self-healing and self-maintaining and can be seamlessly integrated with Windows, Mac, Unix and Linux desktops.

Mohan Menon, CEO of Net-iTech Asia Pacific operations said that Nitix’s autonomic capabilities are particularly important for SMEs which have few dedicated IT personnel. To push Nitix in the Asia-Pacific market, the company is looking at starting Indian operations after having opened its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Singapore. Menon expects to get at least 500 to 1,000 installations in the key Asia-Pacific countries of Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia this year.

Being a hardware-based OS, it can efficiently function as a server, and is a self-healing system. Nitix addresses a range of core infrastructure requirements, including firewall, virtual private networks (VPNs), website hosting, file and print services, Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity, data management and back-up. “It is difficult to go to the market with just a pure Linux offering because finding Linux skills can be tough and full application porting is a long way off. The interesting part however is that despite the kernel being Linux-based, the end user does not need to know Linux to deploy the solution” says Menon. “With the Nitix system, the end user is immune from what is going on inside because they continue to use the English language front-end as it is,” he adds. Menon also dispels any concerns on compatibility. According to him, every single component of Nitix is built on industry standards and hence it can co-exist with any other infrastructure on the market today, which helps overcome integration issues.

A potential problem that Nitix may face in its attempt to sell the product to larger companies with branch offices is that they prefer a best-of-breed approach and avoid on relying on a single vendor, especially one that is new in the market. But Menon is confident that the lower outlay for a Nitix system and reduced administrative costs created by its all-in-one approach can be invested in a redundant machine, should the users feel the need. “Further, with the price companies pay for Nitix, they can invest in a fully backed up server should they be concerned about a single point of failure. This would still be lower in cost than putting disparate systems together,” Menon adds. Nitix has more than 10,000 installations in North America.