Integrating the iSCSI initiator and the BladeCenter management software would greatly reduce the complexity of Dickinson Wright's storage systems, Hunt said.

Matt Wineberg, worldwide product marketing manager for IBM's BladeCenter, called Microsoft's iSCSI initiator "an attractive diskless-boot alternative" that won't "break the bank."

HBA cards cost from US$600 to $800 for blade servers, according to industry analysts.

"We expect the performance [of the Microsoft-IBM offering] to be good or better than systems with an HBA," Wineberg said.

Lorenson said the later enterprise NAS offering will be included in a future upgrade to Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 R2, whose iSCSI and NAS technology currently targets small and midsize businesses.