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IBM, Compaq In Storage Deal
Vendors to launch hardware, software bundle this month
By Joseph F. Kovar, CRN
Armonk, N.Y.
5:34 PM EST Fri., Feb. 02, 2001
IBM this month plans to unveil a hardware and software
storage bundle in conjunction with one of its hardware
rivals and storage partners,Compaq Computer.
The bundle is aimed at helping solution providers
integrate SANs in midrange clients. IBM plans to unveil
the package Feb. 21, just before the Partnerworld
conference in New Orleans, scheduled for Feb. 15-28.
The bundle, part of IBM's new TotalStorage Solution
Selling program, is based on the Modular Storage Server.
It is IBM's version of the MA8000 array OEMed from
Compaq under a cross-selling agreement the companies
signed last July.
IBM hopes to increase its storage business through its
channel partners, says Denise Buonaiuto, IBM vice
president of business partner sales worldwide for storage.
IBM sells 45 percent of its storage via partners, up from 34
percent early last year, and those sales are growing 25
percent per year, according to Buonaiuto.
But IBM is not specifically going after the Compaq
installed base, she says. "IBM and Compaq wanted the relationship to grow markets for
both of us," she says. "We don't think it's necessary to go after the same customers."
IBM will help business partners market the SAN bundles, Buonaiuto says.
Pat Kelly, president of Pinnacle Computer Solutions, a Sugar Land, Texas, solution provider,
says he is interested in the bundle, especially if IBM prices are lower than the price of the
original components. |
