The looming SAN storm in the SMB market part 2; continuation of the roundtable discussion on the emerging SAN market for small to medium-sized businesses sponsored by Computer Associates, Dell, Emulex, Intel and Microsoft

Computer Technology Review, August, 2004

Smith: That's a great question, and I think for a lot of us, it's going to be a "let's walk before we run" kind of thing. We want to make sure we nail this, that we do it right. And we've got a lot of experience working with OEMs. The key is to recognize that we provide what we think is a very important piece of the puzzle. You need storage, you need the switching technology, you need the server. And right now, I think, the right approach is to let guys like Dell (they're experts in bringing this directly to customers) do that and provide a really tightly integrated, easy to use solution and get that to market, prove the marketplace exists, prove the technologies can work, do the job. And we'll build out from there.

Marrone-Hurley: Anders, I know you've been selling solutions into the SMB market, but do you consider that there's going to need to be any changes from a channel perspective?

Lofgren: We have a fairly substantial channel organization today, and I think the focus on that will only increase. But I think that in terms of the go to market, the keys in the channel is that, again, it's just like the customers. There's not just one profile for that channel partner. There are different types of channel partners. You have some that are more value add, that can do a little bit more; and you have other guys who are in some sense more of a commodity play, where they're just basically pushing products out. What you really need is to be building that awareness and you need to be creating the demand. Actually, a lot of the fulfillment occurs through the channel. And that happens with some channel partners. But there are other channel partners that obviously are more value-add, where you can actually go to market with them and build that awareness and build that demand in those particular marketplaces. And it really takes an intensive effort to recognize which market you want to go after.

If you're going towards more of a value-add partner versus somebody that's more of a commodity who's pushing boxes out there--each type of partner is going after different customers. So again, it's a little bit about pricing and a little bit about packaging; but it's a lot about building that market awareness and understanding what the needs are and the pain points are for those particular customers.

Marrone-Hurley: Did anyone else want to answer that question?

Wall: Well, you've got one big systems provider sitting on this panel, so I'm surprised you didn't direct that question at Dell. We all sell software components--or as Mike said "a piece of the puzzle." This is the guy here that takes a lot of those and then goes out and will create the growth, we hope, in this marketplace.

Padovani: We use the direct model to drive our customers, to communicate to our customers. And part of the growth and improvement in standardization, and working with our partners here on stage and others to really drive the simplicity around putting together a SAN solution, is going to make it easier for us to offer it online and make it easier for customers to order it. We will continue to work to get there. We want to make this so that it's very simple, so somebody can just go online and just point and click and buy a SAN. That's where it needs to go.