An older (May 10) article on Meridian marketing of Snap Server:
<< More than 93,000 NAS units shipped in 1998, up from about 58,000 units in 1997, according to Dataquest.
The San Jose, Calif.-based market-research firm forecasts that worldwide spending on PC server storage and RAID will exceed $5 billion in 2000, up from $2 billion in 1996. The firm also projects that in 1999 more than 40 percent of the cost of a server will be storage-related.>>
May 10, 1999, Issue: 841
Section: Small Business
Meridian Beefing Up NAS Offerings -- New VAR program for Snap
Herman Mehling
Scotts Valley, Calif. - Meridian Data Inc., manufacturer of the Snap Server, a
network-attached storage (NAS) device for small and midsize companies, is rolling
out a reseller program to drive sales of the product, and it also is introducing a
new version of the Snap Server.
Resellers have been asking the vendor for months to support their efforts to
educate small businesses about NAS, said Greg Swope, vice president of sales at
Meridian, based here.
NAS is one of those concepts that needs a demonstration before a client
understands the benefits of it, said Rebecca Lima, sales consultant at Intelli-Tech
Inc., San Dimas, Calif. "We have one small business that was initially reluctant to
part with almost $1,000 for a device it had never heard about. But once we demo'd
the product, the company saw the value and has since bought a number of the
units," she said.
"The expansion of this market makes it imperative for us to have a reseller
program," said Swope. "Resellers are looking for demo units and strong incentives
to sell the products. We think our program answers their needs."
The NAS market grew substantially over the past 12 months, said James Staten,
senior industry analyst for the emerging server technologies worldwide program at
Dataquest.
More than 93,000 NAS units shipped in 1998, up from about 58,000 units in 1997,
according to Dataquest.
The San Jose, Calif.-based market-research firm forecasts that worldwide
spending on PC server storage and RAID will exceed $5 billion in 2000, up from
$2 billion in 1996. The firm also projects that in 1999 more than 40 percent of the
cost of a server will be storage-related.
Hoping to tap into the explosive growth, Meridian is offering resellers discounted
pricing on Snap Server, prequalified sales leads, deep discounts for on-site demo
units and priority sales and tech support, said Swope.
"Resellers will get 50 percent off a demo unit, and if they sell five units of the Snap
Server per month for three months, Meridian will give them the demo free," he
said.
To sweeten the deal even more, Meridian will give partners a 7 percent discount
on top of the prices they get from distributors Ingram Micro Inc. and Tech Data
Corp., he said.
The Snap Server was designed to address the growing needs of small and midsize
networks to store E-mail, CAD files, graphics files, and other large files that can
consume 100 Mbytes or more.
While the product has broad appeal for the small-business market, Meridian
identifies CAD, graphics, legal and publishing as important verticals.
Unlike traditional storage devices that involve hours of installation, the Snap Server
attaches to a network in a few easy steps, said Swope.
"All a user or reseller has to do is plug one end of the server into an electrical
outlet, plug the other end into a network Ethernet port, flip the switch, and the
Snap Server is up and running," he said. "There's no configuring, no SCSI ID or
cables needed, and no server downtime because it doesn't connect to a file server."
The product is preconfigured for Windows NT, Novell NetWare and Unix-based
networks. It supports any existing Windows-based network client, and others
such as OS/2, LAN Manager and Unix workstations. It requires no client
software, no software to load on a network file server and no configuration
changes to make on a file server.
The latest Snap Server, scheduled for availability at the end of May, offers 32
Gbytes of instant network storage and runs three times as fast as previous models,
said Jeff Hill, Meridian's vice president of product marketing.
The Snap Server also is available in 8-Gbyte and 16-Gbyte models.
The new model has a suggested price of $2,495. The 8-Gbyte and 16-Gbyte
models have suggested prices of $995 and $1,795, respectively.
|
