CRN Business Weekly: What's In Store? -- SAN Vendors Want To Reach Critical Mass; Their Weapon Is The VAR Channel
( Computer Reseller News )
Irvine, Calif. - Last week, with a lot of fanfare, Data General Corp.
unveiled a $100 million investment in its Clariion Advanced Storage
Division and said the company is in the process of offering products
to value-added resellers for the first time.
Clariion is not alone.
The first half of this year has seen a succession of data-storage
vendors-whose sales focus is mainly on OEMs, large-scale system integrators
and direct corporate customers-beginning to seriously consider the
VAR channel as a way to increase sales.
Several storage area network (SAN) component vendors are trying the
indirect channel for the first time. Ancor Communications Inc. has
entered the channel with Fibre Channel switches, along with Crossroads
Systems Inc. and its Fibre Channel routers. Arrays from Andataco Inc.,
Hitachi Data Systems, and MTI Technology Corp. either are in the
channel or are expected to be there soon, said executives at those
companies.
SANs help take storage off the LAN and move it to its own network,
allowing data to be accessed, backed up and restored without degrading
LAN performance. A survey of 150 IT managers last December by InformationWeek,
a publication of CMP Media Inc., showed that 71 percent of corporations
are somewhat to very interested in deploying SANs.
But not every vendor that has attempted to enter the VAR channel with
SAN products has succeeded. 3Com Corp., Santa Clara, Calif., late
last year attempted to port its LAN strategy into the SAN arena but
in March pulled out due to financial problems.
However, 3Com's exit will not deter other LAN vendors from trying
this year.
A big reason for the move to the channel is problems caused by the
OEM or direct model, said Dave Hill, analyst at Boston-based Aberdeen
Group Inc. "A direct-sales force is nice but extremely expensive to
do what a vendor wants to do," he said. "The alternative is OEM sales.
But there are not too many [OEM customers], and the OEM model means
vendors have to depend on other organizations to sell their products."
The Dell Computer Corp. model does not work for data storage, Hill
said. "Am I going to buy a Brocade switch over the Web? . . . Data-
storage products need integration."
While Clariion will use part of the investment by Data General to
beef up its direct-sales force, the company also will be looking to
roll in a few resellers for the first time.
The SAN program will roll out in various phases through 2000 and will
be made available to VARs and resellers, said Tom Lacey, solutions
marketing manager at Clariion.
As Clariion and the other data-storage vendors embrace the channel,
VARs said they look forward to increased business.
Scott Slack, vice president of marketing at Cranel Inc., Columbus,
Ohio, said he has noticed the vendors' increased channel presence
for at least the past nine months. "Vendors offer components for a
total solution," he said. "They need the resellers in a consulting
situation to wrap them all together. People feel they can just plug
these [components] in and walk away, but it's not that way at all.
They need our expertise. . . . They need someone to nurse it together.
That's what the channel brings to them."
Jess Hurwitz, president of TrueSense Network Technologies Inc., New
York, prefers to work with vendors that are changing to a channel
sales model.
"We feel we have tremendous value to companies like that," Hurwitz
said. "There are thousands of companies selling products via distributors.
. . . For companies to change their model, they need to be more aggressive.
They also have to do special things to get off the ground or they
will not be successful."
However, one reseller, who requested anonymity, said service is a
major issue when data-storage vendors enter the channel for the first
time.
"A company like [Hewlett-Packard Co.] might have the level of service
customers want-and believe me they want 24x7 service-but as vendors
move into the channel, they realize they don't have service plans
in place," the reseller said.
For example, Storage Technology Corp. may offer full support for its
storage arrays, the reseller said. "But if you add a switch, all of
a sudden it's not a 24x7 system," he said. "You can't say to your
customers, 'Here's a 24x7 system, and by the way, if there's a problem
with this switch, send it back to the manufacturer.' "
The reseller is working with vendors to solve this problem. "There
are still a few 'virgin' vendors for whom this is a real eye opener.
Our position is we can sell these things, but until you get service
in place, there will be issues."
Copyright © 1999 CMP Media Inc.
Joseph F. Kovar, CRN Business Weekly: What's In Store? -- SAN Vendors Want To Reach Critical Mass; Their Weapon Is The VAR Channel. , Computer Reseller News, 05-24-1999, pp 126.
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