NetApp has hit back at rivals circling its SME customer basefollowing the vendor’s announcement of plans to scrap its small businessproduct range.
Since the revelation that NetApp is canning its S series ofproducts rivals including OverlandStorage and Compellent have been vocal about the damage to the channel caused by the changes.
Julie Parrish, vice president of worldwide channel sales atNetApp, said that its focus was going to be on the mid sized market and itwanted resellers to sell those products.
"Moving forward, NetApp will focus its MSE efforts by building outour FAS2000 platform. As a result, we will launch channel-only FAS2020 NetAppSelect Bundles that will provide our MSE customers with enterprise levelperformance at a mid-market price point along with easier ordering options,”she said.
“At the same time, we will no longer provide any additional enhancementsto our S550 platform. We believe this product platform consolidation will offerour channel partners the opportunity to sell a more market-competitive set ofproducts based on NetApp’s unified storage architecture,” she added.
“Even though StoreVault orignially targeted the SME segment, it wasorientated toward the MSE market after integration into NetApp’s core products,”she added “NetApp’s core products have alwats focused on the enterprise and MSEspace.”
But already the chance to exploit some channel and customer confusion withOverland among those jostling for potential new customers.
David Spate, Sales Director, Northern EMEA, Overland, stated: “Given the tough economicclimate we are now facing, it is quiet frankly stunning that NetApp would wantto effectively disenfranchise its customer base by discontinuing this range.”
“The S family of entry level storage products was targeted at the SMB segmentand we are urging any NetApp customers - and indeed channel partners who resellthe range - to contact us,” he added.
Compellent is also commenting on the consequences for resellers and managing director of international sales Andy Hardy said thatdecisions like NetApp’s did cause disruption to both channel partners andcustomers.
“Channel partners and customers want a single, flexible storagesolution that can scale from a few terabytes to several petabytes. Forthe channel, the ability to sell and service a single storage platform into awide range of customer environments is hugely efficient and highly profitable,”he said.
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