Hammer smashes SAN price
Distributor launches V2 Electronics Server, a 'SAN emulator' aimed at SME customers
Distributor Hammer has unveiled a storage server that it has claimed will allow resellers to offer SMEs the advantages of SAN-type technology for a fraction of the usual price.
The V2 Electronics Storage Server is Hammer's own branded storage product, part of the V2 range of storage systems. The new product is a server using Intel Xeon processors and storage management software from developer Lefthand Networks.
The V2 Storage Server supports up to 16 Serial ATA hard drives per server, and connects to a range of networking connectivity types, such as iSCSI and Fibre Channel.
"We're building a box to emulate SANs," said Paul Sangster, managing director of Hammer. "Storage networks are a great technology, but they're out of the price range of most SMEs. The market is maturing, so people want to sell to SMEs."
Sangster claimed that the approach of many SAN manufacturers to supplying SAN technology may backfire on them. Some vendors are catering for SMEs by stripping their enterprise products of features and launching them at a lower price point, he said.
Sangster claimed that resellers would be better off selling a storage system that has been built especially for SMEs.
"We've approached it differently from the rest, by building from the bottom up. The software we are putting on the servers is specifically designed for the job it's doing," Sangster said.
Noel May, EMEA director at Lefthand Networks, which developed the management software, claimed the channel can now sell all of the features that corporate firms have always enjoyed to SMEs.
"Whether SMEs have five or 50 servers, they will be able to use features such as snapshots, clustering, virtualisation, failover and load balancing, but without having to pay for the massive direct sales overheads that companies such as EMC and HDS have to pass on to customers," May said.
"IP has made networking storage more affordable, and our software has made it more practical. There's no learning curve needed, no infrastructure change and no training requirements. The real total cost of ownership is much lower, which means if you get in early you can still make good margins."